Programming is Nietzsche

» It surprised me to learn that .. Javascript (and most programming languages) require no spaces.

The Places We Live .. that have no space In other words, you can use all the spaces you like (.. to improve, for example, the readability of your code) ..

.. but programming languages themselves just ignore white space (.. especially when you use optional semicolons to separate your statements).

That torqued my cranium nicely. Tho not sure why. Maybe cuz it's clear that the Englishlanguageneedsspacessobadly.

Still plowing thru Javascript. Got a little sidetracked there, learning about Unicode, ASCII, UTF-8 (the 8-bit version of character encoding that all my new web pages use) and UTF-16 (the 16-bit UCS Transformation Format that Javascript uses). Surprising amount of info contained there .. for something most of us take for granted.

Friedrich NietzscheProgramming is Nietzsche (Values)

Another little curio I've stumbled upon is:

• Programming (it seems) is very much about » values.

Nietzsche (it seems) is very much about » values.

■ Therefore, ipso facto » Programming is Nietzsche. =)

Wouldnt Nietzsche make a good name for a programming language?

What are your values? Your highest values. Do you live your life in a manner that is congruent and consistent with them? (Do you dare?)

Nietzsche did. (And he went stark raving mad.)

PS - For months (.. as I've studied programming) I've been on-the-lookout-for parallels or intersections (connections) between's Nietzsche's values and Programming values. Tho I never found what I was looking for. Not even a loose thread. Frustrating.

Nietzsche's 'values' are really about » morals & priorities.

While Programming values are about things such as » numbers (.. 1,2,3), "strings" (.. of text), booleans (.. true/false), arrays (.. ordered lists), objects (.. unordered lists of property/value pairs) & functions (.. code that can accept an input (argument, parameter) and spit out a value).

In other words we're talking about » variables. Which are values that change.

Two totally different sets of semantics. So I'm surprised by how the non-existent connection finally played out. I mean, the syllogism was obviously meant as a joke. (I did have a class in Logic, which was one of the better uses of my college time.)

••• today's entry continues here below •••

The Places We Live .. that have no spaceI took Nietzsche's values, and Programming values and added Your values. My values.

So I guess .. if there's one thing we can take away from this elusive Nietzsche-Programming-Life nexus .. it's that Programming should help us change our values regarding space. =) ■

For more along these lines, here's a Google search preconfigured for the query » programming languages ignore white space

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This page contains a single entry by Rad published on July 30, 2011 7:30 AM.

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