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Language, Mathematics and Programming
Even if you have extensive training in Mathematics, the average Mathematics paper is undistinguishable from the ramblings of a madman. Many of these papers seek to solve narrow problems. And yet, we respect Mathematicians.
Software programming is a form of communication, usually between human beings and machines. While different in style, programming is a subset of the language of Mathematics. If you dig into the average source code, it is undistinguishable from ramblings, even if you are an expert developer.
Yet, we denigrate programming. Many will even deny that it is a Mathematical language. But Mathematics and Programming are not so different:
| Mathematics | Programming |
|---|---|
| Building on the previous research papers requires you to dig through endless piles of boring, badly written research papers. | Maintaining millions of lines of codes written by various people over the years is difficult, boring, error-prone. |
| Inventing new theorems or new mathematical theories requires much creativity. | Coming up with the next best iPhone application requires much creativity. |
| For most people, mastering even part of Mathematics requires a decade or more. | Please read Teach yourself programming in ten years by Peter Norvig. |
| The language of Mathematics has directly contributed to technological progress. Electricity, engines, nuclear power, space travel all required extensive use of Mathematics. | Google changed the world through the brilliance of its software engineers. The open source revolution has changed how people think about collaboration. |
| Some Mathematicians are widely recognized as being extremely smart. | Some famous people have done a fair share of difficult and technical programming : Donald Knuth and TeX, Tim Berners-Lee and the Web, Linus Tovarlds and Linux. |
Why is programming getting so little respect?
- The intense commercialization of programming has commoditized it. As Paul Graham might say : painters where initially “portrait takers”. It is only when painting lost its commercial function that it became recognized as a noble art. However, just like painters always used their free time to create great art, the best programmers are open sourcing beautiful code all the time.
- The study of programming itself remains rather informal. You can get degrees in Computer Science, Computing Engineering or Software Engineering, but there is no degree in Programming. Programming is taught in universities, but generally only in the first few courses of a degree. Yet, there are degrees in Communication, Fine Art, Architecture, Music or Dance. While a degree in Computer Science or Software Engineer can make you a better programmer, the fact remains that your professors are not expert practitioners.
How can we fix this? I have this secret dream of setting up the equivalent of “Creative Writing” program, but for programmers. Call it “Creative Programming”. Basically, students would come together to write great code. Yes, such code might be useful commercially, but that would be a secondary consideration. The pursuit of greatness would be the only goal that matters. It would treat programming as a bona fide language. It would attract the best programmers as guest lecturers. Would this ever work out? I do not know.
I am sure that many will point out that my secret dream is impractical. Beauty should not come first : we want cheap, reliable, maintainable code. We also want programmers to be replaceable, inexpensive and practical. However, human beings can both pursue greatness while being practical. Compromise is possible.
Let me conclude by quoting Donald Knuth:
(…) computer programming is an art, because it applies accumulated knowledge to the world, because it requires skill and ingenuity, and especially because it produces objects of beauty. A programmer who subconsciously views himself as an artist will enjoy what he does and will do it better.
Further reading: The best software developers are great at Mathematics? and Is programming “technical�