in reply to Re: how do you express coding-pleasure?
in thread how do you express coding-pleasure?

moving in the right direction when you were throwing stuff away

That would be princepawn/metaperl, whose sig says "Carter's compass: I know I'm on the right track when by deleting something, I'm adding functionality".

I think this is a basic tenet that comes up time and again in human endeavour. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said "You know you have achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away."

Going back earlier in time, Blaise Pascal said, of a letter he had written, "I have made this longer than usual, only because I have not had time to make it shorter."

- another intruder with the mooring of the heart of the Perl

  • Comment on Re^2: how do you express coding-pleasure? (notable quotes)

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Re^3: how do you express coding-pleasure? (notable quotes)
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Nov 28, 2004 at 18:30 UTC

    Indeed, and thanks for doing the legwork. I especially like the last(first) version.

    I have made this longer than usual, only because I have not had time to make it shorter."

    For me, that kinda sums up one of the best things about coding for oneself, instead of a client or company. One has the time to make things shorter.

    There are other pleasures (as well of plenty of downsides--mostly financial :() derivable from programming for the sake of it. Others include:

    1. No deadlines.
    2. No contradictions (barring Me and Myself arguing with I:).
    3. No onus to complete.
    4. The joy of be able to pursue interesting side issues. Even if they are ultimately dead-ends.
    5. Answering all those "what-ifs" that crossed your mind during interminable meetings (with clients or bosses), but went unanswered for fear of embarassment.
    6. The ultimate joy, is that of knowing you are wasting nobody's time, but your own.
    Examine what is said, not who speaks.
    "But you should never overestimate the ingenuity of the sceptics to come up with a counter-argument." -Myles Allen
    "Think for yourself!" - Abigail        "Time is a poor substitute for thought"--theorbtwo         "Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
    "Memory, processor, disk in that order on the hardware side. Algorithm, algorithm, algorithm on the code side." - tachyon
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