You wouldn’t think that programming languages could provoke a feeling of nostalgia. After all, programming code is the epitome of machine-like expression. Its coldly logical construction is in some ways the very opposite of natural language’s focus on mood, feeling, human connection and frailty.
Yet today I found myself looking at some code written in a computer language I had not encountered since college, and was swept back in time to an earlier era of my life, remembering people, places, sounds, smells and feelings that had long been dormant.
I suppose that on some level the mind treats code like any other textural experience — like the intricate veins of a leaf, the sunlight that glistens through a snow frosted window, the smell of fresh mown grass on a summer morning. Anything you’ve experienced can be a trigger for deep memories.
It just seems strangely ironic when that trigger turns out to be, of all things, computer code.
It makes perfect sense to me! In addition to being something that you probably spent a lot of time with, a computer language comes with a whole way of thinking and a particular culture—books, teachers, machines, people, conversations, etc. Plus, it has a concrete form in the syntax and, possibly, media, in which it was expressed. Seeing it after a long time would definitely bring up strong memories.
Snobol.
Pdp 11 Macro Assembler Language
OS 360 (and the green card)