Code as Praxis

Prof AlvaradoMDST 3705

29 January 2013

Business

• Please create Posts, not Comments• Quiz 1 to be posted next Tuesday• New materials on the site

– Requirements– Schedule later today

• Concerns about coding level– Media Studies– Computer Science

Review

• Code, like language, both assumes a world and constructs worlds

• 10 PRINT showed this– Close reading of the line of code– The pattern that the code generated

• Word patterns (an example)– http://people.virginia.edu

/~rca2t/MDST3705/play/sara.php

• Another example is Conway’s Game of Life– Anyone heard of it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcuBvj0pw-E

CONWAY’S GAME OF LIFE

Very simple rules and structures

Complex and unpredictable results

An example of “emergence”

This is what Barricelli saw …

Coding as Hacking

But first, what’s a hacker?

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacker

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/hacker

How is hacking like painting?

Hacking is a form of creation or building

The code itself

The effects of the code

Are creativity and logic incompatible?

Ginevra de Benci

Leonardo da Vincic. 1475

What is the relationship between doing and knowing?

(Ramsay’s argument)

According to Ramsay, scholars who write programs learn

something about knowledge and meaning that others do not

(He created a big stink in saying so.)

“Praxis,” which is German for practice, refers to a theory of

knowledge

This theory holds that only knowledge based in and oriented to action is

valid

Assocaited with Marxism, but also with American Pragmatism (Perice,

James, Dewey)

How is hacking not like painting?

Hackers and painters are also at odds …

Plato banished the poets (which included painters) in favor of

philosophers (whose descendants are computer scientists)

Code and Plato’s Cave

Coding and painting, literally speaking, use different “parts” of the brain

e.g. Visual vs. Syntactic

People skilled at one are notusually skilled at the other

The code reflects this division of labor

Good software is always the collaboration of “hackers” and

“painters”

Graham’s implicit point is that hackers and painters can get along because they both have a creator’s approach

to knowledge

} PAINTERS

} CODERS

The nature and structure of programming languages reflects

this division of labor

Code Review

BASIC TEMPLATE FOR HTML

HTML + CSS

HTML + CSS + PHP

PHP Values

• Strings are in quotes– $foo = “BAR”;– $foo = ‘BAR’;

• Double quotes mean you can put variables inside the string– $foo = “BAR $baz”;

• Numbers have no quotes• Booleans have no quotes

– true– false

PHP Operators

• Numeric+ - / * %

• Strring. (the “dot” operator)

e.g. “This ” . “and that” = “This and that”

• Boolean&& || < > == != <= >=

and or xor

e.g. if ($x < $y) { … }

Regarding Truth

• The “true” is that which has a positive or negative value

• The “false” is that which has a no value, other 0 or an empty string