On 30/12/2011 01:41, David Lee wrote:
> IMHO the art of software is often invisible to nearly everyone but the creator.
Indeed. Like the fine carvings in inaccessible places in a cathedral,
invisible to everyone but the creator and the Creator.
I take great delight in the internal poetry of code: making the source
look good on the screen, eloquence in the choice of names, choosing the
elegant design over the banal and obvious one. A joy of working for
myself is that I don't have to try and rationalize why I do this; a joy
of writing open source is that the enjoyment can be shared by others.
This is definitely art rather than engineering, but I like to think that
the pride in craftsmanship has beneficial side effects on the
engineering metrics of the final artefact.
But all this is an indulgence; it doesn't pay the wages. It's what a
good craftsman does, but not what he is paid to do. The day job is
engineering.
There is also art, of course, in what is exposed to users: the external
visual design. But that's a different question, and one where I have
very little competence.
Michael Kay
Saxonica
