RIO IN THE GLOBAL WORLD OF SOFTWARE

Resumen

While my book (Coding Places: Software Practice in a South American City) dedicates many pages to Lua, it is not about Lua and certainly not about a "syndrome" from which Brazil needs to free itself. The book is about globalization and the paradoxical position cities such as Rio have in the global world of software. One part of that paradox is that Rio is a city like many others. It's not "strange" - it's quite normal. Silicon Valley is unusual - and quite lucky. People working in Silicon Valley do not have to make difficult choices that people in Rio (and many other places) need to make. The book analyses those choices and aims to show how those decisions help maintain the existing order, even as they tug on it from the edges. It is not my intention to condemn those choices, however. I would probably make the same choices myself. In fact, I often do (My own book is also only available in English). Yet I think it's worth reflecting on those choices more, considering them in their complexity.