3 ms·

>That is a ridiculous statement. That is a content free statement, you should think better. >Are you really saying that from all the developers all over the w

>That is a ridiculous statement. That is a content free statement, you should think better. >Are you really saying that from all the developers all over the world you believe that he is the only one who consistently aims for well written code? Pretty much. The only people who write code for people instead of computers are those who use literate programming. There are a few of them around - the largest project being axiom: http://www.axiom-developer.org/ http://www.axiom-developer.org/ - but they are basically a rounding error. >How would you even start ascertaining the truthfullness of this? Have you went around, interviewed all the developers and found their ”aim for well written code” to be lacking in consistency? Every project I've looked at, including those praised for great code quality, were universally terrible. People seem to think that code quality means using consistent variable names and indenting. Which is like thinking that the reason why War and Peace is a good novel was because of Leo Tolstoy's neat handwriting. >That he thought he needed to invent a new ecosystem tells you much about him, yes. It absolutely does not tell you about the aims of others. Perhaps others found that they can write well writen code consistently even without inventing a new ecosystem. It tells me that no one else has ever thought about the point of code. It's not to get a computer to do something. It's to explain to people how to do something. The computer is just a way to do it faster.

krisoft 4y ago
> That is a content free statement, you should think better. It is the thesis statement of my comment. It tells you what I think of your opinion while the rest of them tells you why. > Every project I've looked at, Great. So what? That might be enough to show that many projects are terrible. It doesn’t show what those people’s aim was. And certainly not enough to show that nobody other than Knuth consistently aims to write well writen code. On the contrary it is super simple to prove you wrong. I have multiple excelent colleagues and former colleauges who are obsessed about writing well written, readable code. They work hard to find the right abstractions, document their designs, discuss the macro and micro level consequences of choices they make. They worry about creating missuse resistant APIs, and rewrite code when they deem it not simple and obvious enough. They review fellow developers code to maintain these high standards. These are all forms of consistently aiming to write well written code. When you say “only Knuth…” you are dissing all of these great engineers. And you are dissing them, without even knowing them. > People seem to think that code quality means using consistent variable names and indenting. You clearly haven’t met the right people then.

krisoft 4y ago

> That is a content free statement, you should think better. It is the thesis statement of my comment. It tells you what I think of your opinion while the rest of them tells you why. > Every project I've looked at, Great. So what? That might be enough to show that many projects are terrible. It doesn’t show what those people’s aim was. And certainly not enough to show that nobody other than Knuth consistently aims to write well writen code. On the contrary it is super simple to prove you wrong. I have multiple excelent colleagues and former colleauges who are obsessed about writing well written, readable code. They work hard to find the right abstractions, document their designs, discuss the macro and micro level consequences of choices they make. They worry about creating missuse resistant APIs, and rewrite code when they deem it not simple and obvious enough. They review fellow developers code to maintain these high standards. These are all forms of consistently aiming to write well written code. When you say “only Knuth…” you are dissing all of these great engineers. And you are dissing them, without even knowing them. > People seem to think that code quality means using consistent variable names and indenting. You clearly haven’t met the right people then.