‘What is Code?’ Weekly Response

Having little to zero experience with coding, I was particularly struck by the article’s section about programming languages, as I was drawn in by the ways they parallel and differ from the traditional concept of “language.” After reading the excerpt it makes a great deal of sense to me that the creation of a popular, widely used programming language is the mark of expertise in the field of computer science, but this is oddly not something that had previously occurred to me. It is in this way that the definition of a programming language differs from the traditional definition. However, its purpose still aligns well with my previous conceptions of language in that they are used to organize, articulate, structure, and explain ideas and enact a series of communications with an overarching goal/meaning in mind. Particularly interesting to me was the map of countries with particularly high rates of usage for certain CS languages. It is as if these languages form the basis of transnational digital communities and cultures of programmers with a unique set of borders bearing little impetus on the physical borders of nation we are used to seeing.