McCloud "Understanding Comics" (1993) points out that most of us are initially drawn in by the visual differences between different comics, but this is succeeded by the discovery of a series of other dimensions, finally winding up with appreciation for the craft of story.

For programs, I don't think anyone's told a story as comprehensive as McCloud did about comics [it's even left a small literature in its wake], but the discussion of Figure 1 on pp8-10 of https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2016/1... could be a start in terms of untangling superficial details from deeper aspects?