TITLE: One Reason We Need Computer Programs
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: January 26, 2014  3:05 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Code bridges the gap between theory and data.  From
<A HREF="http://ivory.idyll.org/blog/on-code-review-of-scientific-code.html">
   A few thoughts on code review of scientific code</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 ... there is a gulf of unknown size between the theory and the
 data.  Code is what bridges that gap, and specifies how edge
 cases, weird features of the data, and unknown unknowns are
 handled or ignored.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

I learned this lesson the hard way as a novice programmer.
Other activities, such as writing and doing math, exhibit the
same characteristic, but it wasn't until I started learning to
program that the gap between theory and data really challenged
me.

Since learning to program myself, I have observed hundreds of
CS students encounter this gap.  To their credit, they usually
buckle down, work hard, and close the gap.  Of course, we have
to close the gap for every new problem we try to solve.  The
challenge doesn't go away; it simply becomes more manageable
as we become better programmers.

In the passage above, Titus Brown is talking to his fellow
scientists in biology and chemistry.  I imagine that they
encounter the gap between theory and data in a new and
visceral way when they move into computational science.
Programming has that power to
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2014-01.html#e2014-01-23T16_14_07.htm">
   change how we think</A>.

There is an element of this, too, in how techies and
non-techies alike sometimes lose track of how hard it is to
create a successful start up.  You need an idea, you
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2010-12.html#e2010-12-01T15_45_40.htm">
   need a programmer</A>,
and you need a lot of hard work to bridge the gap between
idea and executed idea.

Whether doing science or starting a company, the code teaches
us a lot about out theory.  The code makes our theory better.

As
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2010-12.html#e2010-12-01T15_45_40.htm">
   Ward Cunningham</A>
is fond of saying, <B>it's all talk until the tests run</B>.
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