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?