Executable Texts: Programs as Communications Devices and Their Use in Shaping High-tech Culture

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dc.contributor.authorMawler, Stuarten
dc.contributor.committeechairAbbate, Janet E.en
dc.contributor.committeememberAllen, Barbara L.en
dc.contributor.committeememberReeves, Barbara J.en
dc.contributor.departmentScience and Technology Studiesen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:32:16Zen
dc.date.adate2007-05-01en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:32:16Zen
dc.date.issued2007-01-19en
dc.date.rdate2007-05-01en
dc.date.sdate2007-03-01en
dc.description.abstractThis thesis takes a fresh look at software, treating it as a document, manuscript, corpus, or text to be consumed among communities of programmers and uncovering the social roles of these texts within two specific sub-communities and comparing them. In the paper, the social roles of the texts are placed within the context of the technical and cultural constraints and environments in which programs are written. Within that context, the comments emphasize the metaphoric status of programming languages and the social role of the comments themselves. These social roles are combined with the normative intentions for each comment, creating a dynamic relationship of form and function for both normative and identity-oriented purposes. The relationship of form and function is used as a unifying concept for a more detailed investigation of the construction of comments, including a look at a literary device that relies on the plural pronoun "we" as the subject. The comments used in this analysis are derived from within the source code of the Linux kernel and from a Corporate environment in the US.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-03012007-160106en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-03012007-160106/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/31388en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartmawler-thesis-final-ETDupdates.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectprogrammingen
dc.subjectopen sourceen
dc.subjectsource codeen
dc.subjectcommentsen
dc.titleExecutable Texts: Programs as Communications Devices and Their Use in Shaping High-tech Cultureen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineScience and Technology Studiesen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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