Introduction

"So why bother trying to understand this line of code?" If computer code embeds stories, then every symbol within them helps illuminate historical lines of inquiry, or at least serves as a medium for the playing out of ideas, one which is off-limits to Non-readers, just as everyday signage is unavailable to foreign-language speakers. "I am quite in the dark: the feeling is akin to trying to read legal code or, sometimes, the IRS code. I feel like I ought to get it, but I don’t, and I won’t." Traditional wisdom might lead one to believe that "learning to read code" is monocultural task, a conservative dance which can only be danced one way. Computer code may also be interpreted or approached through other means or perspectives. This line of code, while maintaining maximum brevity, manages to represent the fundamentals vital to interpreting a much broader class of codes. It acts as a gate into the worlds of external ideas embedded within computer codes.

"So why bother trying to understand this line of code?" If computer code embeds stories, then every symbol within them helps illuminate historical lines of inquiry, or at least serves as a medium for the playing out of ideas, one which is off-limits to Non-readers, just as everyday signage is unavailable to foreign-language speakers. "I am quite in the dark: the feeling is akin to trying to read legal code or, sometimes, the IRS code. I feel like I ought to get it, but I don’t, and I won’t." Traditional wisdom might lead one to believe that "learning to read code" is monocultural task, a conservative dance which can only be danced one way. Computer code may also be interpreted or approached through other means or perspectives. This line of code, while maintaining maximum brevity, manages to represent the fundamentals vital to interpreting a much broader class of codes. It acts as a gate into the worlds of external ideas embedded within computer codes.