 According to this view, computing involves just symbols, not meanings. Turing machines become symbols manipulators and not a single but multiple meanings can be associated with its operations. How can then one identify when two programs are the same program, if not by their meanings, that is, by considering what function they perform? One answer comes from Piccini’s analysis of computation and its “internal semantics” (Piccini 2008, 2015 ch. 3): two programs can be identified as identical by analysing only their syntax and the operations the programs carry out on their symbols. The effects of string manipulation operations can be considered an internal semantics of a program. The latter can be easily determined by isolating subroutines or methods in the program’s code and can afterwards be used to identify a program or to establish whether two programs are the same, namely when they are defined by the same subroutines.