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  • Hacker News
  • Too bad the author had a sketchy PL professor. (Side note: The theory of programming languages is better developed across the atlantic.)

    Case in point: The so-called order of a function is a well-defined natural number. Languages are called higher-order when it is as facile programming with functions of order greater than 1 as with first-order ones.

    A pity if the author never gets a second chance at that knowledge.

    by throwway262515
  • working with AI for 3 months and now I'm having to use programming terms to get it going in the correct direction.
    by cyanydeez
  • IMHO understanding terms and concepts matters more than ever
    by dSebastien
  • > And it was a deep lesson that now feels too obvious: terms are simply created for understanding. That is what matters at the end of the day. This isn’t just about programming; sadly, we often go through fierce battles over a concept or a problem while not realizing that each of us has a different definition for it.

    Yeah, I think it’s interesting to think about programming in this way. At the end of the day, JavaScript is just a bunch of words someone invented and made a computer do something with, and you can also invent your own words to whatever you want too

    by anon7000
  • I felt this for a long time, but this helps me understand the challenge For instance, Autisim is a wide swath from what I know. Spectrum disorder makes more sense, but people not familiar with this treat Autism as true/false. Its so much more nuanced that that. Same goes for so many things as I get older. I agree with the author, take it easy when someone misuses a term that you hold a specific meaning to.
    by BrokenBuild
  • From what I learned, a disorder is defined as a condition that significantly impairs a person's daily life. And autism is not always a disorder. That's why "autism spectrum" is considered a better term.
    by ghassenfaidi
  • Autism being a spectrum doesn’t mean it is not a true/false. Both can be true. You can either be autistic (somewhere on the spectrum) or not on the spectrum at all.
    by smugtrain
  • The mass de-skilling will continue, until Claude becomes unavailable.
    by rvz
  • what do you mean?
    by ghassenfaidi
  • +1
    by effed3
  • that's not what this is about

    the author wanted one single definition for terms like "module" in the field of programming, realized that there is not one, and stopped being so bothered about nailing down exact definitions, because words like "module" mean different things to different people and in different contexts

    by pjm331
  • The author will have an interesting interview experience when talking to HR and devs that actually care about programming terms as selection filter.
    by pjmlp
  • gatekeepers will die on that hill
    by BrokenBuild
  • > ... Because this actually leads to a distorted understanding of programming languages. So it's not always that simple; it's not either "terms don't matter" or "I'll kill you if you misuse it!".
    by ghassenfaidi
  • If “terms are simply created for understanding”, then why is their misuse so unimportant? Isn’t the whole point of a term’s use in understanding only obtained with the proper usage? Isn’t improper usage actually creating confusion and misunderstanding? Shouldn’t you care?
    by smugtrain