SOFTWARE STUDIES, A LEXICON

John Gonsalves10/31/2013

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

SOFTWARE STUDIES

Interaction

Interface

Internationalization

Interrupt

Lists

Language

LOOP

Memory Obfuscated Code

Object Orientation

Perl

Pixel

Preferences

ProgrammabilitySonic

Algorithm

Source Code

System Event Sounds

Text Virus

Timeline

Variable

Weird Languages

THINGS TO FOCUS ON

MEMORY

INTERNATIONALIZATION

INTERACTION

INTERRUPT

OBFUSCATED CODE

Theor

yPracti

ce

MEMORY

“Memory is constructed from a seal that is known to work on soft wax or clay” – Aristotle, Cicero, Plato etc

“Computer memory is not just one possible model of human memory, it is the best model of memory” Computers Memory is modeled after our own

Implications for question, “Can Machines think?” If they can remember like us, can they not think like us?

INTERNATIONALIZATION

Internationalization “allows software to be readily adapted to different local conventions, customs, and languages” Java contains fields to address language and country

“Requires that individuals fit a norm of being human beings”

Implications on conversation from Tuesday How to Disappear

INTERRUPT

Computers used to be single process, closed systems

An INTERRUPT is an external change to an existing operational space Pausing a video interrupts the operational space of

video Makes computers responsive to dynamic

environments

OBFUSCATED CODE

“Programs that run in some sort of surprising way” “There are other aesthetic principles at play besides

those “classical” ones that have been most prominent in discussions of programming”

“…it makes code more enticing, inviting the attention and close reading of programmers. There is enjoyment in figuring out what an obfuscated program does that would not be found in longer, perfectly clear codes”

Pig Latin -- An English to pig-latin translater. The source code is written in pig-latin and the layout is in the shape of a pig's head.

INTERACTION

INTERACTION – “Crucial shift from computer as problem-solver to computer as problem-explorer in a space of necessarily unforeseen possibilities”

Algorithms - A technique, or mechanism, which prescribes how to reach a fully specified goal”

Heuristics specify a method of behaving which will tend towards a goal which cannot be precisely specified because we know what it is but not where it is”

IMPORTANT

VS.

INTERACTION INTERRUPTION OBFUSCATION+ +

= ENGAGEMENT

FOR EXAMPLE….

Our Web Pages

In Everyday Life

ENGAGEMENT

Lots of layers of interaction

Interruptions create the possibility for new interactions

Be OBFUSCATED

Be DIFFERENT

Be UNIQUE

Be OPEN MINDED

ENGAGEMENT

Lots of layers of interaction Interruptions create the possibility for new

interactions Be obfuscated

Be different Be unique Be open minded

ENGAGE!

QUESTIONS?