If you’ve been in the software development world, you may have noticed some larger themes while going about your day-to-day. As you create, you (or I) tend to start with relatively large, unruly blobs of code. Then in several passes, those large, unruly blobs of code are broken down into smaller, more structured, and more generalized bits that are used by more specialized bits. This is the essence of functional decomposition, but it can happen along interesting axes. Most languages allow you to break down main routines into subroutines, but can you break down types? Some languages let you break down types, but can you parameterize them? Some languages let you parameterize your types, but can you classify and manipulate your language elements based on their properties?

We can watch computer language development go from simple to abstract, and this mirrors the path of mathematics. The power of the abstractions cannot be understated. As each new abstraction layer appears, our ability to compactly express ideas grows by some exponent. The cumulative effect will have a total power difficult to predict.

Mathematics is a language of “what is true.” One of its peculiarities is that it can be completely removed from the physical world and still work. Mathematics of some form acts as the core of most software languages, but that’s not their totality. We can call the myriad ways to express truth as Truth Language.

Programming languages take some way of describing “what is true” (i.e. mathematics and logic) and layer on top the ability to talk with a computer’s inputs and outputs. This makes software languages capable of interacting with the world.

Thus, programming languages are languages of sense and action. Every piece of software in its most generalized form is Input -> Computation -> Output [ -> Repeat ]. The inputs are some form of sensory data — key presses, camera data, mouse movement, network packets, etc. — that inform the rest of the process. The Computation is a series of transformations based on known truths, and the Outputs manifest the results of this computation in the world. These processes can range from simply putting characters on a screen to the full complexity of running a manufacturing plant and beyond. Whatever the goal, it’s manifested in the real world. We can call these Action Languages.

Not only do we use programming languages to direct computers, but we use them to communicate with each other about what computers will do or have done. The emphasis on human readable code is strong in the software engineering discipline(s). One might also notice that the core of general human language is Action Language — we use our language largely to describe things to do.

However, general language includes more layers atop Action Language: a semantics of history and future, past actions and intent. Computer systems generally express past as log of some form while intent is expressed as an event handler configuration or schedule. These things tend to be described within software languages by how they are configured and/or formatted rather than as first-class elements of the software languages themselves, but there may be a slow shift toward more formality.

By advancing the state of Action Language, computer science is essentially advancing the state of general language. Though we don’t yet completely use software languages this way, it’s clear that we’re educating millions at a time in their use to communicate both with our machines and each other. The long-term effect of this can only be more power and precision in our ability to express ideas and intent.

More than communicating amongst ourselves, software language is rapidly allowing us to express intent to and command the universe itself. Computers were an impressive step, giving each individual a capacity for logical and mathematical expression never before possible by even the whole of humanity. As technology advances toward increasingly more advanced creation machines like CNC machines and 3D printers, our words, expressed as software, achieve increasing creative potency.

To date, software represents the pinnacle of the power of the written word, and we still seem to have a lot of improvement ahead of us. If you don’t yet know how, pick up a programming book or tutorial and get started. Incomputency in the 21st century will be looked on as illiteracy in the 20th.