An addendum to my very personal history of programming Programmers today… …do not really know where the language stops and the framework begins. What do I mean by this? Up until about 1988 most programs that a person (like you) would use had been programmed from the ground up by a handful of programmers (often just one) using a 3GL (3rd generation language). The key words being: . from the ground up As I explain in the of this series, 3GLs assembly or machine language into .¹ A programming language is a collection of reserved words and some rules about grammar that restrict how one can use those words in a way that will not confuse the compiler (which expands the words into a series of machine language instructions). Together, this is referred to as the language’s first article abstract reserved words syntax. As you can see most languages have surprisingly few reserved words to remember. SmallTalk has only 6! So back to pre-1988 software, if you look at the code of a program written before that time, the only words you will see besides the handful of reserved words are the names of variables and functions that . This is what most people think of as programming. the programmers created The image comparison code (written in C) below uses two reserved words: and . The two underlined words ( , and ) are functions from libraries and ). When a library is like this it is called a dependency. All of the other words in this program are either variables or comments written by the programmer. for double fabs printf included ( stdio.h math.h included By simple word count, 90% of this code was written by the programmer. Less than 10% of the code is someone else’s, 4% from the language and 6% from the two libraries. totalDiff += GET_PIXEL**( )[ ]** - GET_PIXEL**( )[ ]** / 255.0;totalDiff += GET_PIXEL**( )[ ]** - GET_PIXEL**( )[ ]** / 255.0;totalDiff += GET_PIXEL**( )[ ]** - GET_PIXEL**( )[ ]** / 255.0; "%lf\n", 100.0 * totalDiff / **(double)(**im1->width * im1->height * ; for( ) x= ; x < im1->width; x++ 0 { for( ) y= ; y < im1->width; y++ 0 { fabs ( im1, x, y RED_C im2, x, y RED_C ) fabs ( im1, x, y GREEN_C im2, x, y GREEN_C ) fabs ( im1, x, y BLUE_C im2, x, y BLUE_C ) } } printf ( 3) ) Now lets look at the Java version of the same function: ImgDiffPercent ; public enum { **public** **static** **void** main**(**[**String**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Astring+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky)**\[\]** args**)** **throws** [**IOException**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Aioexception+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky) **{**  
    _// https://rosettacode.org/mw/images/3/3c/Lenna50.jpg_  
    _// https://rosettacode.org/mw/images/b/b6/Lenna100.jpg_  
    [**BufferedImage**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Abufferedimage+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky) img1 = ImageIO.**read(new** [**File**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Afile+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky)**(**"Lenna50.jpg"**))**;  
    [**BufferedImage**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Abufferedimage+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky) img2 = ImageIO.**read(new** [**File**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Afile+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky)**(**"Lenna100.jpg"**))**;  

    **double** p = getDifferencePercent**(**img1, img2**)**;  
    [**System**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Asystem+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky).**out**.**println(**"diff percent: " + p**)**;  
**}**  

**private** **static** **double** getDifferencePercent**(**[**BufferedImage**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Abufferedimage+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky) img1, [**BufferedImage**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Abufferedimage+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky) img2**)** **{**  
    **int** width = img1.**getWidth()**;  
    **int** height = img1.**getHeight()**;  
    **int** width2 = img2.**getWidth()**;  
    **int** height2 = img2.**getHeight()**;  
    **if** **(**width != width2 || height != height2**)** **{**  
        **throw** **new** [**IllegalArgumentException**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Aillegalargumentexception+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky)**(**[**String**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Astring+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky).**format(**"Images must have the same dimensions: (%d,%d) vs. (%d,%d)", width, height, width2, height2**))**;  
    **}**  

    **long** diff = **0**;  
    **for** **(int** y = **0**; y < height; y++**)** **{**  
        **for** **(int** x = **0**; x < width; x++**)** **{**  
            diff += pixelDiff**(**img1.**getRGB(**x, y**)**, img2.**getRGB(**x, y**))**;  
        **}**  
    **}**  
    **long** maxDiff = 3L \* **255** \* width \* height;  

    **return** **100.0** \* diff / maxDiff;  
**}**  

**private** **static** **int** pixelDiff**(int** rgb1, **int** rgb2**)** **{**  
    **int** r1 = **(**rgb1 >> **16)** & 0xff;  
    **int** g1 = **(**rgb1 >>  **8)** & 0xff;  
    **int** b1 =  rgb1        & 0xff;  
    **int** r2 = **(**rgb2 >> **16)** & 0xff;  
    **int** g2 = **(**rgb2 >>  **8)** & 0xff;  
    **int** b2 =  rgb2        & 0xff;  
    **return** [**Math**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Amath+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky).**abs(**r1 - r2**)** + [**Math**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Amath+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky).**abs(**g1 - g2**)** + [**Math**](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=allinurl%3Amath+java.sun.com&btnI=I%27m%20Feeling%20Lucky).**abs(**b1 - b2**)**;  
**}** } Everything in bold is a key word, everything underlined is a function from an library. This listing is about 65% code written by the programmer, and 20% code from the language syntax and 15% depedencies upon external libraries. imported I am not saying that this is a bad thing. I am merely making a statement of fact. As it happens, including code from libraries is an important productivity enhancer. There is no justifiable reason for the average programmer to re-invent the wheels of language; reserved words, library classes and functions. So in most modern code, this trend towards less code written by the programmer, and relying more and more upon code written by someone else in the form of a library has increased exponentially. And although not a bad thing, many agree that things have gone too far. inherently And magic happens… In early 2016, what felt like half of the Internet broke because a an 11 line program called from a public repository called . It turned out that some of the biggest, most used JavaScript frameworks in the world included a dependency on left-pad rather than type out the ten lines of code below: programmer removed left-pad npm function leftpad (str, len, ch) {str = String(str);var i = -1;if (!ch && ch !== 0) ch = ' ';len = len - str.length;while (++i < len) {str = ch + str;}return str;} Another npm package called had 18 million downloads in February of 2016, and is a dependency for . 18 Million everyday programmers, and 72 package authors used an include rather than type this 1 line of code: isArray 72 other NPM packages **return** toString.call(arr) == '[object Array]'; Now I’m just a country boy, but to me this pretty clearly indicates that the programmers that created these 72 npm packages either had the most twisted sense of humor I have ever seen, or really had no idea of what was in and how JavaScript actually works. I take it to be an example of at its most extreme. isArray cargo cult programming To further drive home the point that most modern programmers blindly use class libraries without understanding what is in them I refer you to sobering (and depressing) of his personal reaction to the left-pad fiasco. Jordan Scales account Get off my lawn So where am I going with all of this? My point is that “programming” as the average person imagines it hardly exists today. The only programmers “writing code” in the form of new algorithms are either working at very big Internet companies, or are writing specialized image, video, or sound processing sofwtare for a startup. The armies of “kids today” working in the salt mines of corporate and government IT are doing something else entirely. The coding they do is the software equivalent to meme creation and social media posts, complete with post-modern pop culture references. Only instead of recycling pictures of Clint Eastwood, Good Guy Greg, or Scumbag Steve, they are cutting and pasting code and indiscriminately using libraries such as or . They do not really know where the language ends and the framework begins. It is all just one big soup to them. left-pad isArray And although I am not a “kid”, I am scarcely better myself. I describe myself as a cargo cult programmer (reluctantly but honestly). Some of you may be familiar with the epic . Next week I will tell you… Story of Mel The Story of Me [1] In ALGOL, FORTRAN, and PL/1 there are no reserved words, only . The difference is not really that important in the context of this article. In this article I will use to refer to both. keywords reserved words This article is an excerpt from my upcoming book which explains why most companies and government can’t write software that “just works”, and how it can be fixed. The Chaos Factory

Assembly

Google

The Story of Me, a Real™ Programmer?

The fifth decade of programming: J is also for JavaScript

Read the inside story of the failure of enterprise IT

Framework or language? Get off my lawn!

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

50x Faster Code and Fewer Bugs? Ditch the Classes

Our Short-form Series Perform Better Than Netflix. Here's How we Film Them

Pick Your AI Voices for Blog Publishing on HackerNoon

“Eye in the Sky,” Featured in the “21 Futures” Anthology, Out Now Via Konsensus

2018 Crypto Bear Market and What We Can Learn From It

31 Stories To Learn About Society

50x Faster Code and Fewer Bugs? Ditch the Classes

Our Short-form Series Perform Better Than Netflix. Here's How we Film Them

Pick Your AI Voices for Blog Publishing on HackerNoon

“Eye in the Sky,” Featured in the “21 Futures” Anthology, Out Now Via Konsensus

2018 Crypto Bear Market and What We Can Learn From It

31 Stories To Learn About Society

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Minty

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps