Languages

04 Mar 2023, 393 Words

Sometimes, I feel that I have been blind to the most jaw-dropping things out there. In that line of things, the latest have been about programming languages - an epiphany that the languages I use to write code, have been designed by someone.

I am a big fan of Python. The power it gives me is beyond my capability to express over here. It’s so simple that most are able to decipher what I am doing. Yet, it gives me the ability to conquer everything out there, to build anything I want and to simply rest and watch it all play out. This is not inherent to Python of course, but to all programming languages in general.

They show a way to originate systems and make it work so miraculously well. They are like…keys on a keyboard. Or paint brushes on a palette. Or rather the range of colors within the palette itself. They enable artists to create magic with them, while being an art piece themselves.

Incredible.

But individuals built this! Someone sat down and carefully crafted languages that could be written by others. They decided on how a language should be used, how it should look like, what it can do and magically sculptured it to life. That is just…absolutely amazing. I wonder how these language creators feel about real people using their creations - conceptual designs that once existed in their minds alone. Ah, they must realise that there is no such thing as death for them anymore. They live among everyone’s fingertips.

What a way to live forever.

I feel so ashamed that I don’t understand the engineering behind this. I live and breath what I do, and yet this is a black box to me. It is obvious to me that languages are abstractions of…well, other languages. Language A to language B to language C to ones and zeros. It’s turtles all the way down. But something sits in between these languages, something that understands it well enough - compilers, interpreters, and programmers.

But how does the translation happen? How is it so consistent? How is it possible to express so much with so little?

Oh god, there is so much to know. So much of human brilliance to explore. So much to create.

I speak the language of the Gods. I just have to really understand it.