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Terr_ • today at 6:11 AM • 1 reply • view on HN

> a snapshot of your understanding of the problem

Relevant: Programming as Theory Building (1985) by Peter Naur. The actual text is rather stuffy, but basically the code+docs cannot replace the richer in-human-heads ideas for what the real-world problem is and how computers should (or shouldn't) be used to face the problem.

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AdieuToLogic • today at 7:00 AM

>> a snapshot of your understanding of the problem

> Relevant: Programming as Theory Building (1985) by Peter Naur.

Great reference and I agree. From the abstract in the PDF I have of same:

  Peter Naur’s classic 1985 essay “Programming as Theory 
  Building” argues that a program is not its source code. A 
  program is a shared mental construct (he uses the word 
  theory) that lives in the minds of the people who work on 
  it. If you lose the people, you lose the program. The code 
  is merely a written representation of the program, and it’s 
  lossy, so you can’t reconstruct a program from its code.
Programming is a fascinating combination of mathematical determinism and pure expression of consciousness. Both are entirely abstract, whose worth is only quantified indirectly.

Entire organizations are built upon these intangible work products. Careers are made, promotions given, "free valence problem solvers" allowed to soar, stock options issued to birth millionaires.

But Valhalla is only reached if a cadre of engineers can "see" the system, both for what it is now as well as what it must become.

EDIT: removed irrelevant "physical world" sentence fragment.

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