I'm in a position where I need to describe what coding is like to someone else. I've been programming since I was 13, so I understand it at a level that is hard to put into words, let alone describe to someone else. My latest attempt is as follows:
"Coding is like working in another language. Just like spoken languages, programming language each have their own grammar and keywords. Reading code and understanding it is like having to translate a document."
However, I'm not bilingual, so I was wondering if someone who was could tell me if this is a reasonable simulacrum. Especially the comparison of effort and difficulty between grokking code and successfully translating documents.
"Coding is like working in another language. Just like spoken languages, programming language each have their own grammar and keywords. Reading code and understanding it is like having to translate a document."
However, I'm not bilingual, so I was wondering if someone who was could tell me if this is a reasonable simulacrum. Especially the comparison of effort and difficulty between grokking code and successfully translating documents.