What Has Literature to Offer Computer Science?

Reisi, Ehsan

doi:10.30465/lir.2019.4191

Document Type : Original Article

Author

ehsan reisi

Assistant Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Isfahan University, Isfahan, Iran

https://doi.org/10.30465/lir.2019.4191

Abstract

In this paper I ask the question: what has literature to offer computer science? Can a bdateral programme of research be started with the aim of discovering the same kind of deep intertwining of ideas between computer science and literature, as already exists between computer science and linguistics? What practical use could such results yield?
I begin by studying a classic forum for some of the most unintelligible pieces of prose ever written, the computer manual. Why are these books so hard to understand? Could a richer diet of metaphor and onomatopoeia help me get my laser printer working? I then dig down a little deeper and explore computer programs themselves as literature. Do they exhibit aesthetics, emotion and all the other multifarious aspects of true literature? If so, does this support their purpose and understandability?
Finally I explore the link between computer code and the human writer. Rather than write '4rge amounts of code directly, we encourage students to write algorithms as pseudo-code as a first step. Pseudo-code tells a story within a semi-formalised framework of conventions. Is this the intertwining we should be lookingfor?

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Literary Interdisciplinary Research

What Has Literature to Offer Computer Science?

References

References

Volume 1, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
June 2019
Pages 158-180

What Has Literature to Offer Computer Science?

References

References

Volume 1, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1June 2019Pages 158-180

Volume 1, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
June 2019
Pages 158-180