Programming for Wizards

Cover of Programming for Wizards, with a Flammarion-inspired engraving above the title, subtitle, author name, and small technical manuscript ornaments.
The Flammarion Engraving. Camille Flammarion, L'atmosphère: météorologie populaire, 1888. Public domain. Cover composition uses the public-domain engraving as its visual source.
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A book for people who suspect software could be simpler, stranger, smaller, and more humane than it usually is.

Here, "wizard" is not a rank or credential. It is an invitation to look closely at how problems are shaped, how tools shape people in return, and where a different place to stand might make the problem change size.

Contents

Prologue

  1. 01This is not a programming book

Part I: Representations are spells

  1. 02Numbers: bigger than you think
  2. 03Logic: the truth is out there
  3. 04Language: the oldest trick

Part II: The Web

  1. 05The Web: one string to rule them all
  2. 06The Web: the shape of words
  3. 07The Web: waking up the words

Part III: Inventing languages

  1. 08Teaching machines our words
  2. 09Separated by a Common Language
  3. 10Code exhibit: growing queries inside javascript

Part IV: Boundaries

  1. 11The knitted castle
  2. 12Boundaries: Data, behavior, and time
  3. 13Architecture: arches and change

Part V: The Next Web

  1. 14The Web as commons: innovation happens elsewhere
  2. 15The Web as data: things should have addresses too
  3. 16The Web as home: who owns your home directory?

Epilogue

  1. 17Epilogue: the margin you have been using
  2. 18Acknowledgements

Back Matter

  1. BioAbout the author