Received vs Perceived information

This is a powerful concept to keep in our minds.

What Scott McCloud is saying is that the way our brain works, we receive/understand concrete and realistic visuals faster than more abstract entities. In the latter case, the brain must first compose things together, transform them into more concrete entities, and finally convert them into thoughts or images.

Simple example:

• line 1
• line 2
• line 3

<li>line 1</li>
<li>line 2</li>
<li>line 3</li>

I am quite sure that the first bullet list can be seeing (percepted) by anyone (fast); the second only by those who are familiar with the HTML syntax.

It's not an accident that sophisticated programming editors support (at least) a syntax highlighting feature.
Syntax highlighting helps us to receive information hidden in the code quickly.

I'm really looking forward the day in which the current model of software writing will not require nested function calls or if-else chains, thus behavior diffusion across the code, but rather a way of expressing data relations and behaviors among object entities, in a totally different manner. Let's say fast-receive-perceive (?) techniques for modeling our programs.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art is a 215-page non-fiction comic book, written and drawn by Scott McCloud and originally published in 1993. It explores the definition of comics, the historical development of the medium, its fundamental vocabulary, and various ways in which these elements have been used. It discusses theoretical work on comics (or sequential art) as an artform and a communications medium. It also uses the comic medium for non-storytelling purposes.