I won’t lie, I don’t have much knowledge when it comes to coding. The only things I know are head HTML and Java which are the essential programming languages for coding. So, when I read Kevin Brock’s article on coding, it felt like I was reading a different language. Yes, there were some terms that I’m used to seeing, but most of what Brock is talking about I feel you need a lot of contexts on coding- otherwise you feel lost in the text. One of the terms Brock mentions in this text is “source code”. If you’re like me and you didn’t know what it was,
Source code is the readable set of operational commands written in any number of existing computer languages, generally created and stored as text files with language-specific syntax and vocabulary.
Brock 2019
This is just one of the many terms he uses that just melted my brain throughout the entire read. But don’t worry, Brock has more ways to melt the brain, especially when he talks about the 3 characteristics of coding. Those three being: rhetorical qualities/capacities of code, the discourse surrounding the development/use of code, and the set of social, cultural, and historical contexts that facilitate its composition, dissemination, and critique in general.
There is one more thing that I want to talk about which really caught my interest. There are types of languages in coding that Brock points out in the text. These languages are high-level and low-level languages. High-level are languages we humans can easily understand such as websites, video games, and even this blog you’re reading right now. Low-level are languages that only the computer can fully understand- it’s not meant for the human eye. In other words, codes that build the websites, video games, and this blog post. At least, that’s what I got from it.
If you want more information about what else Brock dabbles in, I highly propose that you read Juan Torres’ blog post, pretty fun read.
Leave a Reply