Reading 5: The Language of New Media - Lev Manovich

Chapter 3 - The Operations

This chapter begins with a brief description on computer programming from the simplest form to today's high- level languages. Being with low-level machine code which talks directly with the central processor through to higher-level languages such as COBOL, FORTRAN and C. Other languages such as HTML, Java and Action script which maybe more familiar to most are used to develop a verity of applications. These have all played a major part in progressing application development and with each step helped in closing the gap between old practices with new digital ones. One of the main emphases throughout the chapter is how things we see in digital technologies are replications of old techniques.

The book unfolds by breaking this chapter into three parts Menu, Filters, Plug-ins makes the first section, Compositing the second and the final being Teleaction. It's a large chapter to cover so I shall only write a few things on it.

First section

The first section describes the logic of selection behind Menu's, Filters, Plug-ins we see in application today. The author uses Adobe Photoshop and Premiere as his examples against Printing and Film editing of past practises. He compares the terms and techniques used and applies them to today's application. There are also explanations on how digital media has begun to bridge the gap between Professionals and Standard users due to costs of hardware and software coming down and becoming more widely available, this is also due to many open source software being made available for free.

In brief, Filters and Plug-in are a way of extending the program with more pre defined operations. Allowing the user to simple select from a menu has been made possible by the modular nature of the application. An example of plug-ins would be ones used within Photoshop to extend operations such as, larger filtering option with images, different photo effect and so on. This has given greater flexibility within the application and most software allows this in one way or another.

The menu Idea does not need much explanation as we all use them in one way or another to make a selected choice not just on computers but also in our day to day lives, choosing food in a restaurant, selecting what to watch on TV and so on. In terms of software, the idea has been adapted to allow the user to select various options from the menu to manipulate the object without the use of lengthy code or commands such as before the GUI.