Re^2: How do you define "elegant"?

Well, I guess you've proven my point :)

I was meaning map would be inelegant if you tried to cram all that logic into the the map block (foreach would be a much better way to lay that out). But obviously your way to do it is also elegant.

It's fairly easy to give examples of what is/isn't elegant, but I find it harder to come up with an actual definition.

Comment on Re^2: How do you define "elegant"?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re^3: How do you define "elegant"?
by holli (Abbot) on Aug 16, 2006 at 12:00 UTC

... a computer program or algorithm is elegant if it uses a small amount of intuitive code to great effect.

holli, /regexed monk/

[reply]

Re^4: How do you define "elegant"?

by Jenda (Abbot) on Aug 16, 2006 at 13:37 UTC

Define "intuitive"! We are exactly where we were. What's intuitive?

IMHO, beauty, elegance and intuitivity (or whatever's the correct spelling in English) are all in the eye of the beholder. What's perfectly intuitive to me is bound to be counterintuitive or plainly a big meaningless mess to someone else.

Jenda
Support Denmark!
Defend the free world!

[reply]

Re^5: How do you define "elegant"?

by ikegami (Patriarch) on Aug 16, 2006 at 17:50 UTC

To further complicate things, intuition is not just in the eye of the beholder, it's also context-sensitive.

For example, someone might normally expect 8 to follow the series 5,6,7, but he'd expect 10 (the octal representation of 8) when reading a VARASM listing.

[reply]