This document discusses analyzing computer code from a semiotic perspective. It proposes understanding code as a dynamic component within a generative trajectory of expression. This involves analyzing code at different levels, including signs, texts, objects, practices, strategies, and life forms. Each level involves both a form and substance. Programming languages influence logical modeling and practices. Different languages like FORTRAN, BASIC, and Java are discussed in terms of the programming paradigms and user interfaces they employ. The document argues for analyzing every level of the generative trajectory to see how matter and substance modify interpretations and meaning when computer code is transposed between digital and human cultures.

1. Greimas.exe: digital code in the
generative trajectory of expression
Everardo REYES
Université Paris 8 / Lab. Paragraphe
The Digital Subject #4 Codes
Org : P. Cassou-Noguès, C. Larsonneur, A. Regnauld.
Nov. 16 - 20, 2015. Archives Nationales & Université Paris 8

2. Semiotic contributions to the
study of code and
software

3. Code and software…
where / how to start analyzing?

4. Word 1.0
Microsoft, 1989
1021 files in 33 folders
Most of source code in C
Also text documents
x86 assembler-language
executable tools, batch files, and more.
Heterogeneity: levels of analysis
Processing 3
C. Reas & B. Fry, 2015
82,000 lines of code
Source code mainly in Java

5. Sign, Text, Object, Practice…
all of them?

6. Our contribution:
understanding code as a dynamic
component within a generative
trajectory of expression

7. Semiosis
Expression plane
Content plane
matter, support, susceptible
interpretation, narrativity, discourse
meaning,
signification
Planes of language that constitute the semiotic function
Elaborated by Hjelmslev, based on Saussure

8. Semiosis
Expression
plane
Content
plane
Form of expression
Substance of expression
Substance of content
Form of content
Each plane has a form and substance
structure / perceptible, invariant / variant

9. Generative trajectory of content

10. Generative trajectory of expression
[ J. Fontanille, 2008, p. 34 ]

11. Semiosis
Expression plane
Content plane
Styles stratégiques
Formants récurrents
Isotopies figuratives de l’expression
Dispositif d’énonciation / inscription
Support formel d’inscription
Morphologie praxique
Scène prédicative
Processus d’accommodation
Gestion stratégique des pratiques
Iconisation des comportements stratégiques
Signs
Texts-
enunciations
Objects
Practices
Strategies
Life forms

12. How to adapt it to code?

13. Object
Formal support:
Raster grid
Material support:
Display technologies [ screens CRT, plasma, LED, DLP ],
capturing [ cameras CCD ],
processing and storing [ processors, hard drives ]
Text
Network of isotopies:
Programming language syntax
Elements of the Graphical User Interface [ GUI ]
Inscription support:
Programming paradigms
User Interfaces
Programming code
Signs
Source of formants:
Binary code, electron diffusion, access to RAM/ROM
Recurrent formants:
Data types, Data structures
Algorithms [ logical and mathematical rules ]

14. Reference of Processing
Dictionary of functions and signs

15. Software visualizations of Processing 2
E. Reyes, 2014

16. Signs, texts, and objects are the underlying levels of
practices and life forms
At each dimension, we could analyze code as enunciation and
focus on interrelated interpretative schemes
Shaping cultures… cultures of software and cultures where
software is increasingly employed, but with a different
foundation of practices, typologies, terminology, signs [ art,
humanities, digital humanities ]

17. Text and practices
• Procedural [ FORTRAN, ALGOL, PASCAL, C ]
• Imperative [ BASIC ]
• Declarative [ LOGO, PROLOG ]
• Functional [ LISP, ML ]: logically superior
• Object-oriented [ SMALLTALK, EIFFEL, C++ ]: synthesis of
procedural structurability and functional logic design
Programming languages do not stem from the recourse to
a logical model, although the machine they control are
explicitly based upon such a model.
[ Hagen, 2006 (in Chun & Keenan) : 157 - 175 ]

18. The machine grew out of Cold War, economy, organization of
labor, numbers game
The structure of the von Neumann machine did not reveal that this
machine would be more than a new calculator, namely a new
communications medium
[ Hagen, 2006 (in Chun & Keenan) : 157 - 175 ]
Object and practices

19. What kind of user is being imagined and put in place?
Which models of “work” have informed Word?
It cannot order alphabetically list items or produce
combinatorial poetry
[ Fuller, 2003 : 137 - 165 ]
Strategies and practices

20. Industrie aujourd’hui : restructurée pour s’adapter aux
potentialités et vicissitudes des logiciels
La vaste majorité de logiciels concernés sont écrits en langages
orientés objet (C++, Ruby ou Java)
Non seulement structurent mais aussi influencent la logique
de l’identification, de la capture et de la médiation
[ Galloway, 2012 : 85 - 99 ]
Life forms and practices

21. A transposition of elements from the whole culture
Challenge and risk of deformations:
There are receiving and sending cultures
They have to create their own version towards foreign elements
It is important to analyze every level of the trajectory to see how
matter and substance modify interpretations and meaning
From Digital ↔ Humanities

22. Merci de votre attention
Everardo REYES
Université Paris 8 / Lab. Paragraphe