Programmer Symbology

Have you ever taken a step back and looked at all the funny characters we use in programming computers?

I did this yesterday. Sometimes, when you look at familiar things in just the right light, they seem so strange.

I use the period to terminate all my sentences. In many programming languages the period is more of a continuation character. It says: “I’m going to act on this thing, and here is what I want it to do”.

boss.MakeMeASandwhich();

That code uses a semicolon to finish a statement; in writing the semicolon joins independent clauses. If symbols are so powerful, how can we juggle the conflicting meanings in our mind? Maybe Perl and C++ had part of it right using –> as a dereferencing operator.*

Sometimes a symbol will mean different things depending on how many times you type it. Like & versus &&. Or the = in JavaScript:

var x = 3;    // assignment

if(x == "3")  // check for equality

if(x === "3") // check for equality and i really really mean 
              // equality because i typed an extra = character

Then we use symbols that impart meaning due to their shape. 

{
    // i'm trapped inside a { } and I can't escape.
}

It’s really not a far stretch from using { } to creating ASCII art.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$'`$$$$$$$$$$$$$'`$$$
$$$$$$  $$$$$$$$$$$  $$$$
$$$$$$$  '$/ `/ `$' .$$$$
$$$$$$$$. i  i  /! .$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$.--'--'   $$$$$$
$$^^$$$$$'        J$$$$$$
$$$   ~""   `.   .$$$$$$$
$$$$$e,      ;  .$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$.'   $$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$.    $$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$     $by&TL$

In fact, I think you could get the above picture to compile into something useful in APL.

* It’s amusing that the Wikipedia entry for Dereference operator has a single “See also” link at this time, and that link points to Segmentation fault.