How would one define "programming language" in a useful way to non-techies? I want to say "a notation for expressing logic in a machine readable way to which personal identity is frequently and unhealthily attached."
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Some analogies I've used are staff-based music notation vs. guitar tabs, or various notations for knitting or crochet instructions. Also tally marks vs. roman numerals vs. decimal can show how notations can have tradeoffs even while the semantics stays the same.
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IIUC people are sometimes made to feel bad if they learned music using guitar tabs and can't currently read the staff notation. This feels a bit like how people are mean to each other about the programming languages they use.
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depends very much on the context imo, heh.
Like if they try to push it on me because the creators are geniuses etc. and it's all you need in a PL then I'll react less favorably than if they are curious/open to learn other things beyond what they currently know.
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I think it's also sometimes useful to say “oh yeah that's cool, btw have you seen this cool thing too?” if somebody is less aware of how much more there is to programming languages.
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