Programming: Self-Writing Code & Understanding Plain English

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the feasibility of creating programs that can write or modify their own code, as well as the potential for such programs to understand and process plain English instead of traditional programming languages. Participants explore both theoretical and practical aspects of self-writing code and the challenges associated with programming in natural language.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that it is possible to create programs that can write or modify their own code, but the complexity of doing so intelligently remains a challenge.
  • One participant mentions that while self-modifying code has existed for a long time, it is not widely used due to limited practical applications.
  • There is a discussion about the potential for programming languages to incorporate features that allow for more natural language processing, though opinions vary on the practicality of this approach.
  • Concerns are raised about the difficulty of programming in natural language, with some arguing that the structure of programming languages aids in organizing thoughts clearly.
  • One participant expresses skepticism about the ability of someone without programming knowledge to create an advanced program capable of self-improvement and complex tasks.
  • Historical references are made to earlier technologies that allowed for dynamic code generation, indicating that the concept is not new.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a mix of curiosity and skepticism regarding the creation of self-writing programs. While some believe it is theoretically possible, others doubt the feasibility for someone without programming experience to achieve such a goal. The discussion remains unresolved with multiple competing views on the practicality and implications of programming in natural language.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight the limitations of current programming languages and the challenges of creating intelligent self-modifying code. There is also a recognition of the need for a clear understanding of programming concepts to undertake such projects.

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Hey guys,
Im wondering can't programmers make like a program that can write new programs or add to its own code?

And can they learn such a program to understand us in plain english instead of all those programming languages?
 
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they could if they knew how.
 
granpa said:
they could if they knew how.

Realy? I could use one of those then XD
 
Okay so that confirms that its possible right?

cause id try to write the program I am trying to create myself but i don't fully understand anny programming language.

All i have is python, visual c++ express edition, Notepad ++(if you know what it is.)
And i don't even know how to use those to create what i am trying to create.
(which woud be a program that can write other programs and edit itself then id only need it to be able to do one thing and that is to like allow it to understand english and make new programs or modify itself the way specified after ordering it to do so.)

So its kinda to help me build programs cause i have a hard time learning even the most simple language so that's why i need it so it could like do the really hard stuff itself.

Id also get it to like look things up it doesent understand useing i don't know google or sumthing.
 
Well its not very hard (but its not easy!) to make a program that reproduces itself or that adds predefined code to it (from other text files for instance) and things like that. However, it is not yet known how to make a program that intelligently modifies itself or adds its code in some sensible behaviour.
As for writing in english instead of regular code - some new programming languages have this feature already installed in some way or another. The feature might get very popular or not at all. I haven't tried it yet.
 
Visual basic is pretty much already in english. Making it understand words could cause a lot of confusion and errors when programming.
 
Darkprojects said:
Im wondering can't programmers make like a program that can write new programs or add to its own code?
This sounds like you might be interested in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_programming" .
Darkprojects said:
And can they learn such a program to understand us in plain english instead of all those programming languages?
If you cannot learn to program a computer in a language designed for the task then you would be even less likely to be able to program a computer in a natural language. Learning a programming language is the easiest part of programming a computer. What is difficult is organizing your thoughts in such a clear and detailed manner that even something as stupid as a computer can perform the task you have in mind. A programming language helps with that because of its simplicity, its rigid grammar, and its limited vocabulary. With all of the richness and nuance of a natural language it would be much more difficult to organize your thoughts to the degree required in programming.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This whole idea is not new at all. There were utilities running under VAX/VMS that wrote custom assembler routines (part of USERBASE if you know what that is) on the fly to optimize sorting. This was 1987.
 
  • #10
You don't know any programming languages, yet you think you'll be able to create some kind of artificially-intelligent program that not only writes more complicated programs, but also looks things up on Google to better itself? Are you planning on creating a teleporter and warp drive, while you're at it?

Self-modifying code has been around forever. It's mostly at the fringe of computer science, because it has very few real applications.

If you don't fully understand a programming language well enough to accomplish your desired task, you're definitely not going to be able to create a program which writes a program to accomplish your desired task. Give it up and focus on becoming a better programmer.

- Warren
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #11
chroot said:
You don't know any programming languages, yet you think you'll be able to create some kind of artificially-intelligent program that not only writes more complicated programs, but also looks things up on Google to better itself? Are you planning on creating a teleporter and warp drive, while you're at it?
Made out of Fruit Loops, of course!

Self-modifying code has been around forever. It's mostly at the fringe of computer science, because it has very few real applications.

If you don't fully understand a programming language well enough to accomplish your desired task, you're definitely not going to be able to create a program which writes a program to accomplish your desired task. Give it up and focus on becoming a better programmer.

- Warren
 
  • #12
Hey now, be nice.
 

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