Second Languages Slow Brain Decline

[Xipe Totec]

45. I didn't choose or find just anyone who can code as being acceptable.

I was one to the chosen, not the chooser.

You can't program the Space Shuttle's on-board flight software on, 64K of ferrite core memory, using COBOL, no matter how good a programmer you are. That requires skill, scientific training, and a specialized language called HAL (Heuristic Algorithm Language) running on a specialized operating system (FCOS, Flight Computer Operating System). The right tool for the right job.

As a scientific computer programmer, I was never called on to write business applications using COBOL, the COmmon Business Oriented Language. The name says what the purpose is.

The litany of specialized languages I've had to use is too long, and arcane to be meaningful. From real time operating systems to digital signal processors.

Each language molds the mind a certain way. It establishes a frame of reference and a domain of interest. Alan Turing proved that all computers and all programming languages are equivalent and interchangeable, if speed and size of code are irrelevant.

But speed and size of code are never irrelevant.