Audience Makes All the Difference

Making the comparison between human beings and computers, is for the most part fairly simple. Apart from a few extreme examples, humans and computers are two fundamentally different entities. Yet, the written communication both us and our computer counterparts use is fundamentally similar. Audience makes all the difference. When a writer writes they are guiding their message to a general or specific audience, and a general or specific purpose. This is the same with programmers, programming for a specific function or a general solution, and a specific or general user in mind. A programmer's writing has syntax, grammar, style, and errors, as with writing. Both require editing and re-editing, checking for problems both syntactically and logically. The only real difference is the audience. A computer for instance requires a very specific set of words on the programmer's behalf to make it function properly. A writer's audience also has specific words that are required to convey a message properly. At the heart of the idea is communication. What the written word requires to communicate effectively to the audience, is essentially the same as what the computer code requires to convey the message to the computer. Programmers and writers think quite alike. There are good programmers and good writers, and the opposite of good writers and programmers. In the world of programming and of writing the best operators are those who can manipulate the audience to their purpose in the most elegant way possible.