Reads: What is Code?

[Be warned that this is a super-long read!]

I will admit I'm a little late to the party. It's because, it took me a while to read this 38,000-word magnum opus written by software programmer Paul Ford, explaining all about code and computer programming. The article not only makes for a compelling read, but for love of God the way it's been presented is indescribably gorgeous. The whole Bloomberg website is visually beautiful for that matter, thanks to a major redesign that went live back in late January this year.

A computer is a clock with benefits. They all work the same, doing second-grade math, one step at a time: Tick, take a number and put it in box one. Tick, take another number, put it in box two. Tick, operate (an operation might be addition or subtraction) on those two numbers and put the resulting number in box one. Tick, check if the result is zero, and if it is, go to some other box and follow a new set of instructions. >>