Hello, dear visitor. Seeing you here today means you're likely a developer, engineer, coder, or some combination of these -- and that you're familiar with the term "code". For several decades engineers all over the world were writing code. This code, first and foremost, was meant to solve problems. And today I would like to tell you about solving even more problems with the power of code. I will show you why and how we should use code for more and more scenarios across our professional and personal lives.
Information as code
Before diving into 21st century, let’s step back and consider what "code" really means. Today, we use it for programming, automation, and infrastructure, but the idea of encoding information in a structured, repeatable way has been around for centuries.
What comes to mind when you hear the word "code"? Most of us (myself included) immediately think of a programming language.
But the word "code" wasn’t originally popularized by programmers. Long before computers existed, humans developed ways to encode information, often to preserve knowledge, communicate securely. One of the earliest examples comes from cryptography.
Cryptography is one of my many interests. Ciphers, cryptography algorithms, encryption, all that jazz. The practice of encoding information goes back to Ancient Egypt, but one of the earliest well-known encryption methods is Caesar’s Cipher (also called Caesar’s Code).
Caesar’s Cipher is a simple technique: shifting letters forward in the alphabet to obscure the original message, making it unreadable to anyone who doesn’t know the shift pattern. The result? Encoded information. Information hidden as (somewhat) code.
At its core, this is the same principle that modern software engineering follows. We structure information in standardized formats so it can be stored, processed, and used reliably. Whether it’s YAML configurations, JSON APIs, or structured documentation, we encode information in ways that make it easy to retrieve, automate, and keep track of.
Logic as code
Now let's get back to our time.
Programmers have been writing software at least since 1940. This software is meant to solve different problems: calculate the sum of two numbers, print "Hello World", launch people in space and send memes to your friends. What all these examples have in common? They encapsulate the logic. An algorithm that describes an order of actions to achieve the necessary result.
Indifferent to complexity, all software is alike in this regard. They have an input: be that a number, a certain trigger, a file. They have from one to infinity steps in their core process, each of which performs a certain action. And they have an output: a rocket engine that's starting, a package with part of a meme flying over fiber optics, or a number.
And the logic presented in this very part is described via code.
Why is it this way?
Thinking rocks (computers) think in a certain way. In a very structured way. In a way that is predictable and repeatable. The same way the code that is written for these computers have to be predictable and repeatable. This way, we can make sure that, unlike meat people, when a computer is asked to run "Hello World" a million times, it will do exactly that -- and not complain on the 10th repetition that "This is pointless" or "Go hello yourself".
Making logic structured, reliable, repeatable helps people offload some of mental capacity on other things. For example, write more code! Create games! Or learn how to play violin!
Would you like to know more?
Head on to my blog to continue reading the rest of the article!
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