Monday, January 26, 2009

Code is Music


Coding is an art. It may look boring, like an indecipherable wall of strangely coloured text, but, like one of those cubist paintings it's not the look but the message what matters in the end. You can look at it and think "It's just garbled characters. I will never get it" and you will never get it, but, try thinking about it, talking to the computer, giving it instructions in a manner not only understood by it, but also by the programmer, and then it makes sense.

Like music, code is an universal language. Sure, there is actually a lot of programming languages, but that doesn't matter. You hear Johann Sebastian Bach and think "It's music", and then some Metallica and also recognize it as music. That's the beauty of coding. That's why code is music.

Think of it, you, the programmer, the composer, sit in front of an empty sheet. You are thinking of a message, something you want to convey to your audience. The melody is already on your head. It's the basic structure of the program. Then, you start giving shape to your creation, adding layers, making them work in harmony until it's done. Your first creations, as in music, don't make sense to anybody. You think you're saying A and they hear B, just like the computer keeps doing anything else but what you want, but it's ok, it's a learning process. Failure teaches a lot more than boring success.

I'm in no way an expert. My "songs" are still punk-rock simple, noisy and fun, but pretty limited. Still, it's a fun road to walk and I want to share my experiences, so welcome to "Code is Music", and now... Start playing!

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