[hnfong]

You can reassert this tautological statement all you want, but when AI-assisted programming tools start compiling pseudo-natural-language into C++, you'd better accept the fact that either:

1. The definition has no bearing to what's happening in the real world, or

2. "Computer programming" ceases to exist as a productive activity and you need to invent a new name for AI-assisted programming.

[mcguire]

But that is part of the point: there is no programming tool to compile natural language into code. Instead, a programmer has to convert the natural language into a formal language that a compiler can deal with. You know all those nifty refactoring tools? They're treating the program as a construct in a formal language---they can make specific changes without altering the meaning.

Oh, and there is nothing tautological about it, at least as far as most programmers seem to work.

[hnfong]

> no programming tool to compile natural language into code

Pretty sure you missed a couple news articles recently...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30179549 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27676266

They're not exactly reliable, but you probably could say the same for the earliest compilers (from programming languages to asm/machine code).

I'm not saying they will definitely be usable in the short term future, but that future is probably coming sooner or later, and I don't think a fragile definition (programming==="applied formal logic") is worth reiterating over and over again as if it were some fundamental truth.