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Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defence against complexity.
by BlackJack 14y ago
Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defence against complexity.
— David Gelernter
This resonates with me. The article makes a fine point about removing unnecessary complexity, but in the real world you can't be perfect in that regard - not for a large system anyways. So maybe we should allow a little more complex code if we can use the beauty of the product to hide it.
- chriszf 14y agoYou can't be perfect but you can at least try to reduce complexity. Saying "just paint over it with pretty colors when you're done" invites unchecked complication. That attitude is what drove all the monkey/ninja patching that we saw with some early Ruby modules. They were beautiful, yes, but it made some code impossible to reason about.
- lobo_tuerto 14y agoWhat I take from this is we should strive for the most elegant solution to a particular problem. Be it algorithm or software architecture. For example, if I had in some way, the catalog of all the possible solutions to problem X ready in my mind, I'd pick the most elegant one. Not necessarily the shortest, but the most elegant, the one where you can spot the _solution's outlines_ easier. I think seeing and appreciating this outlines would make you a connoisseur of fine software. You would strive for beauty and elegance, and appart yourself from unnecessary complexity.