Since humans and machines process and understand language differently, it is only natural that computer program languages process differently as well. In Brock’s Rhetorical Code Studies, he describes code as a meaningful form of communication as any other one. As I write this paper about code, my mind takes me back to something familiar. When I was completing my Medical Assistant Program in 2009-2010. One of the courses ‘Medical Billing and Coding’ involved learning different codes for each diagnosis. When a patient comes with a complaint, it does not go word for word in every part of the patient file.
If they complain of neck pain, there is a specific code the doctor’s office/hospital submits to the assurance company in order to receive payment. That number alone gives them a clear description of the patient’s medical issue because their system translates those codes into human language.
Coding: An Important Skill!
This is an example of what Brock defines as source code and the executable programs built from source code. His first characteristic of code importance to its rhetorical study. The set of rhetorical qualities and capacities of code. “Source code is the readable set of operational commands written in any number of existing computer languages.” Since it uses High-level language, including C, Java, and Ruby, both parties understand the language even though it is in code. When the slide of code shown in class, I was intimidated, and taken aback because that was practically new to me. I have no prior knowledge of the specific details of it. I now realize that coding is a skill that is very important to learn. Brock talks about the concern in certain communities where children are missing out. They don’t get the same opportunities as other students to learn about the different aspects and branches of technology. Coding is just one example.
Leave a Reply