\u003C/figure>\u003C/div>\n\u003C!-- /wp:image -->\n\n\u003C!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\u003Cp>As I was puzzling my way through the relationship between a written language and a programming language, Google was busy announcing Quantum Supremacy. I was chatting with Paul and Sara about this topic on the \u003Ca href=\"https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/11/05/stack-overflow-podcast-episode-127-worst-bug-ever/\">recent podcast\u003C/a>, and they made the point that if this becomes a powerful new paradigm, computer science programs will need to start teaching advanced physics. We already see folks studying hard core math and statistics they can apply to machine learning that a decade ago would not have been taught to most computer science majors. \u003C/p>\n\u003C!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n\u003C!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\u003Cp>Our guest, Clive Thompson also hipped me to an old language, \u003Ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOW-MATIC\">FLOW-MATIC\u003C/a>, the first English-like programming language. It was created by Grace Hopper, who at the time was working for the RAND Corporation and trying to sell more computers to corporations and government agencies. \u003C/p>\n\u003C!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n\u003C!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\u003Cp>\"I used to be a mathematics professor. At that time I found there were a certain number of students who could not learn mathematics. I then was charged with the job of making it easy for businessmen to use our computers. I found it was not a question of whether they could learn mathematics or not, but whether they would. […] They said, ‘Throw those symbols out — I do not know what they mean, I have not time to learn symbols.’ I suggest a reply to those who would like data processing people to use mathematical symbols that they make them first attempt to teach those symbols to vice-presidents or a colonel or admiral. I assure you that I tried it.\"\u003C/p>\n\u003C!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n\u003C!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\u003Cp>At the time, her colleagues declared that writing anything but binary and assembly level code was blasphemy. Compilers were certain to introduce more errors than they solved. Our Chairman, Joel Spolsky, \u003Ca href=\"https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/09/17/joel-spolsky-clive-thompson-discuss-coders-software-programming/?_thumbnail_id=12819\">recently said\u003C/a>, \"I just picked up Arduino a year ago and that was enormously fun because it was like going back to C, instead of all these fancy high-level languages where you don’t know what they are going to do. It offered a really detailed level of control. If something doesn’t work, you can figure it out, because everything is tractable.\" \u003C/p>\n\u003C!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n\u003C!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\u003Cp>He see a growing gap between those skills and what many folks learn to land jobs in junior developer roles doing web or mobile work. \"In my time, it was the absolute control. Whatever code you wrote, that’s what executed. There was no translation. It wasn’t like, well the flour was kind of old, and I tried to make the souffle but it collapsed. Unlike so many things you will try to accomplish as a child or an adult, where you work on something but it doesn’t turn out as you expect it to, with code it will do exactly what you told it. Even if that’s not what you meant. You might suddenly realize you’re obeying me to the point of making me angry. It’s sort of utopian. Things behave as they are supposed to. The reason I put a question mark on that, as programmers move higher and higher up the abstraction tree, that kinda goes away.\"\u003C/p>\n\u003C!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n\u003C!-- wp:heading -->\n\u003Ch2>\u003Cem>\u003Cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Arrival - new language, new ideas? \u003C/span>\u003C/em>\u003C/h2>\n\u003C!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n\u003C!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\u003Cp>It seems like this may be one of the eternal debates of computer science. What are the advantages of keeping things rooted in math, logic, and a collection of domain specific commands versus the advantages of opening up your language to a wider audience by adapting it so that it connects back to the language we read, write, and speak everyday. \u003C/p>\n\u003C!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n\u003C!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\u003Cp>And if that's the case, are there any popular programming languages, at a global level, that have gotten traction with developers, lasted for years, and been used to build popular products and services, that weren't originally written in English? Is the grammar - textual or ontological - of German or Chinese perhaps better suited to generating the next great code?\u003C/p>\n\u003C!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n\u003C!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\u003Cp>Whew, things got heady there for a minute. I've got to get back to the grind of understanding how to access array data with indexes. If you have thoughts on these topics, we're always looking for folks to submit ideas for the blog, so hit us up at pitches@stackoverflow.com. \u003C/p>\n\u003C!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n\u003C!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\u003Cp>\u003Cbr>\u003C/p>\n\u003C!-- /wp:paragraph -->","html","2019-11-08T14:58:10.000Z",{"current":508},"ben-popper-is-the-worst-coder-in-the-world-quantum-edition",[510,518,520,525,529,533,538,543,548],{"_createdAt":511,"_id":512,"_rev":513,"_type":514,"_updatedAt":511,"slug":515,"title":517},"2023-05-23T16:43:21Z","wp-tagcat-bulletin","9HpbCsT2tq0xwozQfkc4ih","blogTag",{"current":516},"bulletin","Bulletin",{"_createdAt":511,"_id":512,"_rev":513,"_type":514,"_updatedAt":511,"slug":519,"title":517},{"current":516},{"_createdAt":511,"_id":521,"_rev":513,"_type":514,"_updatedAt":511,"slug":522,"title":524},"wp-tagcat-code-for-a-living",{"current":523},"code-for-a-living","Code for a Living",{"_createdAt":511,"_id":526,"_rev":513,"_type":514,"_updatedAt":511,"slug":527,"title":528},"wp-tagcat-javascript",{"current":528},"javascript",{"_createdAt":511,"_id":530,"_rev":513,"_type":514,"_updatedAt":511,"slug":531,"title":532},"wp-tagcat-linguistics",{"current":532},"linguistics",{"_createdAt":511,"_id":534,"_rev":513,"_type":514,"_updatedAt":511,"slug":535,"title":537},"wp-tagcat-quantum-supremacy",{"current":536},"quantum-supremacy","quantum supremacy",{"_createdAt":511,"_id":539,"_rev":513,"_type":514,"_updatedAt":511,"slug":540,"title":542},"wp-tagcat-stack-overflow",{"current":541},"stack-overflow","stack overflow",{"_createdAt":511,"_id":544,"_rev":513,"_type":514,"_updatedAt":511,"slug":545,"title":547},"wp-tagcat-stackoverflow",{"current":546},"stackoverflow","Stackoverflow",{"_createdAt":511,"_id":549,"_rev":513,"_type":514,"_updatedAt":511,"slug":550,"title":552},"wp-tagcat-worst-coder-in-the-world",{"current":551},"worst-coder-in-the-world","worst coder in the world","Ben Popper is the Worst Coder In The World: Quantum Edition",[555,561,567,573],{"_id":556,"publishedAt":557,"slug":558,"sponsored":12,"title":560},"65472515-0b62-40d1-8b79-a62bdd2f508a","2025-08-25T16:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":559},"making-continuous-learning-work-at-work","Making continuous learning work at work",{"_id":562,"publishedAt":563,"slug":564,"sponsored":12,"title":566},"1b0bdf8c-5558-4631-80ca-40cb8e54b571","2025-08-21T14:00:25.054Z",{"_type":10,"current":565},"research-roadmap-update-august-2025","Research roadmap update, August 2025",{"_id":568,"publishedAt":569,"slug":570,"sponsored":12,"title":572},"5ff6f77f-c459-4080-b0fa-4091583af1ac","2025-08-20T14:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":571},"documents-the-architect-s-programming-language","Documents: The architect’s programming language",{"_id":16,"publishedAt":17,"slug":574,"sponsored":12,"title":20},{"_type":10,"current":19},{"count":576,"lastTimestamp":577},19,"2023-05-25T09:46:52Z",["Reactive",579],{"$sarticleModal":502},["Set"],["ShallowReactive",582],{"sanity-IGG1geIcdQieMxSLtZgJiiD9NDy4-jhUdNk5A-LHTg0":-1,"sanity-comment-wp-post-14135-1756187770513":-1},"/2019/11/08/ben-popper-is-the-worst-coder-in-the-world-quantum-edition"]