> It requires a computer (or access to one). It requires programs to run your code - free or otherwise.
I know what you're saying, but I'd like to point out that you don't need a computer to write programs. I started writing programs with pen and paper back in middle school (before my family owned a computer), and still often do that. Nowadays, most of them do end up being digitized and executed, though.
Alonzo Church, Alan Turing, Haskell Curry, Moses Schoenfinkel, etc., were writing programs before computers were even invented ;)
"The notes [...] include in complete detail, a method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers [...] which would have run correctly had the Analytical Engine been built. Based on this work, Lovelace is now widely credited with being the first computer programmer and her method is recognised as the world's first computer programme."[1]
I agree that there's something satisfying about watching a computer execute a program, but I find pleasure in the process of just writing programs, too. At that point, though, it's just coding for coding's sake.
You're thinking about maths, logic and algorithmic, abstract disciplines that go nicely with programming, coding, or however you would like to call the physical implementation of the mathematical ideas derived using your pencil. Although you could argue about when exactly the step is made from abstraction to implementation, I like to think that it's somewhere between compile time and throughout testing.
They were programs in every sense of the word. Back then it was often QuickBasic or x86 assembly language, nowadays they tend to be either Lua or some Lisp (usually Scheme). I actually find the process helpful, because when it's not as convenient to just run the program to see if it works, I find that I reason about the programs more deeply. YMMV, of course.
I know what you're saying, but I'd like to point out that you don't need a computer to write programs. I started writing programs with pen and paper back in middle school (before my family owned a computer), and still often do that. Nowadays, most of them do end up being digitized and executed, though.
Alonzo Church, Alan Turing, Haskell Curry, Moses Schoenfinkel, etc., were writing programs before computers were even invented ;)