Use of the word "code"

Question

Use of the word "code"

SomptingGuy (Automotive)

(OP)

21 May 08 06:24

(This question was already raised in the CFD forum, but I feel it deserves a wider audience.)

Many computer analysis programs are commonly referred to as "codes", particularly in the fields of CFD and FEA.  I've just sat through a sales pitch from a company that sells acoustic software.  The presenter immediately started using the word "code" to describe their product.

It seems to me that the word is mainly used when the program includes some kind of standalone solver in an engineering context.  I find myself using the word without thinking and I can't explain to myself or others when it is appropriate.

One poster in the CFD forum hinted that it's a throwback to the days when simulations were distributed via source code.  This doesn't satisfy me completely because it's a slightly different meaning:

"(source) code" is clear enough to me.  It is text that can be compiled into a program.

"A code" though generally means an entire program, often a suite of programs.  But only certain types of program (?).

Does anyone have any clear answers?

- Steve

MintJulep (Mechanical) · Answer 1 · 2008-05-21 07:05:54

From Dictionary.com

Code:

1.    a system for communication by telegraph, heliograph, etc., in which long and short sounds, light flashes, etc., are used to symbolize the content of a message: Morse code.
2.    a system used for brevity or secrecy of communication, in which arbitrarily chosen words, letters, or symbols are assigned definite meanings.
3.    any set of standards set forth and enforced by a local government agency for the protection of public safety, health, etc., as in the structural safety of buildings (building code), health requirements for plumbing, ventilation, etc. (sanitary or health code), and the specifications for fire escapes or exits (fire code).
4.    a systematically arranged collection or compendium of laws, rules, or regulations.
5.    any authoritative, general, systematic, and written statement of the legal rules and principles applicable in a given legal order to one or more broad areas of life.
6.    a word, letter, number, or other symbol used in a code system to mark, represent, or identify something: The code on the label shows the date of manufacture.
7.    Computers. the symbolic arrangement of statements or instructions in a computer program in which letters, digits, etc. are represented as binary numbers; the set of instructions in such a program: That program took 3000 lines of code. Compare ASCII, object code, source code.
8.    any system or collection of rules and regulations: a gentleman's code of behavior.

SomptingGuy (Automotive) · Answer 2 · 2008-05-21 07:07:56

Thanks, but you'll notice that the use of "code" to describe an entire engineering package isn't on that list. Your highlighted text is effectively "source code". The question remains.

- Steve

SincoTC (Mechanical) · Answer 3 · 2008-05-21 07:29:18

I think that the word algorithm better describes the structured assembly of code that programmers of CFD and FEA software use to solve a particular problem.

Trevor Clarke. (R & D) Scientific Instruments.Somerset. UK

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billweston (Computer) · Answer 4 · 2008-05-21 08:41:34

Fascinating question.

"code" somehow seems more Englishy and engineeringy.
Where "app" is American and commercey.

Some people still use "programME" for computer programs
That seems a bit tweed jackety to me.

Totally elbow patch.

DRWeig (Electrical) · Answer 5 · 2008-05-21 16:32:28

Interesting topic!

Around here, as in Dilbert comics, "code" is any amount of programming logic. I can write one line of code, or slam out volumes of code.

When I compile it all into a working system, it becomes an application or suite of applications...

Let's hear from the others out there!

Good on ya,

Goober Dave

HgTX (Civil/Environmental) · Answer 6 · 2008-05-21 16:52:01

To me, "code" means "source code" (a mass noun rather than a count noun), not any kind of compiled product like a program, application, module, etc. If someone were to tell me he has some codes to sell me, I would think he meant books of standard specifications.

Hg

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SomptingGuy (Automotive) · Answer 7 · 2008-05-21 16:59:13

Do a google search on "cfd code" and "cfd program". It's about 6:1 in favour of "code". If you read the CFD vendor's pages the marketing stuff uses (gulp) "solution" or (not so bad) "package", but the main meat of the text always uses "code".

Forgive me for being pedantic, but this really is "Engineering language". In no other software field would vendors describe their products as "codes".

- Steve

MikeHalloran (Mechanical) · Answer 8 · 2008-05-21 21:45:48

The word "code" is used, at least among "coders", to refer to the human- readable source, the machine- readable binaries, and any of the intermediate forms produced or used by compilers, assemblers, linkers, loaders and assorted other tools that you, as a user, should never see or become aware of.

Many of the best coders are artsy types, with strong visualization skills, and weak language skills. I.e., they can program a computer to compose a coherent sentence, but they, personally, can't. So thank your lucky stars that they didn't come up with a totally synthetic word.

The word "algorithm" is distinct from "code". An algorithm is a recipe, usually in civilian- readable form, i.e. coherent sentences, and specifically _not_ in "source code", describing "how" to make a computer do something. An algorithm is not itself a program. A program would comprise one particular way to implement an algorithm.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

GregLocock (Automotive) · Answer 9 · 2008-05-21 22:50:43

Code is written in Fortran or assembly. Applications are written in C++

????

I think you were very close to the mark with your first post, if there is a solver of some sort (FEA, CFD, MBD) that the rest of the program is just a front end for, then it tends to get called code.

The opposite would be something like Excel where the GUI is 99% of the programming effort, the computational core small (at a guess).

Do people refer to CAD codes, or programs, or apps?

Cheers

Greg Locock

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lewtam (Mechanical) · Answer 10 · 2008-05-23 00:25:41

I refer to my LISP/VBA efforts in AutoCAD as 'code'.

Is it C++ or C# these days? I haven't programmed with it in 15 years and recently got corrected by a programmer at a party when I called it C++.

Kif Kroker: "Yes, I programmed it in for you. Four million lines of Basic!"

fcsuper (Mechanical) · Answer 11 · 2008-05-24 20:30:10

If they are using the word code to describe a program, then I think that is a bit off the mark. The code is the code itself, not the the program being run.

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

xwb (Computer) · Answer 12 · 2008-05-25 07:00:06

I often hear of what I used to know as source code being called script. I don't know if this is just company terminology or whether it is more widely used. For instance "Have you coded it?" has now been replaced by "Have you scripted it?". Sounds quite alien.

If speakers, guest or otherwise (especially non-technical management) refer to programs as code, I will actually ask them, stating that use of the wrong terminology in engineering environments which deal with cryptology can confuse people. So far, I haven't had a case where the person hasn't corrected himself on later presentations.

HgTX (Civil/Environmental) · Answer 13 · 2008-05-27 11:05:07

Script...My mother always thought she was no good at programming. Then she ended up in AIX world, and after a few months of "writing scripts" she realized that's exactly what she was doing.

Hg

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SomptingGuy (Automotive) · Answer 14 · 2008-05-27 11:15:15

Taking my own thread slightly OT, "scripts" are written by IT people to automate mundane tasks. "code" is written by programmers.

- Steve

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