The Art of Code

Can coding be beautiful?

What is it that makes code ‘beautiful’?

E = mc² ?

🙂

The Art of Code

A very famous codesmith[*] has devoted his life to collected wisdom for the Art of Programming collected into a Grand Opus. And he’s become pretty much a legend and is still going strong.

This talk and demonstration is not about that. We haven’t got a 4-year degree course to spare!

More meaningfully for the evening, this is a small example for how I was reminded one recent evening for the way of unix. Or rather, reminded of the unix philosophy and how that can be seen to be elegant and beautiful. And all from the very earliest days of programming…

Is beauty elegance in the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of what we do? Or merely something that lies in the eyes of the beholder? How can code be beautiful as opposed to ‘just looking good’?…

This should be of interest to coders, arty artists, and all alike!

So get your bits along to see for yourself this THURSDAY at our old haunt at Fellows, Morton and Clayton. (No football! And food promised.)

• 7:30pm meet and food;
• 8:00pm-ish talk and discussions.

All at:

Good beer. Food served up until 8pm.

All welcome. (Just ask the friendly bar staff if lost 😉 )

Cheers,
Martin

[*]: Donald Knuth:

The Art of Computer Programming (sometimes known by its initials TAOCP) is a comprehensive monograph written by Donald Knuth that covers many kinds of programming algorithms and their analysis.

Knuth began the project, originally conceived as a single book with twelve chapters, in 1962. The first three of what was then expected to be a seven-volume set were published in 1968, 1969, and 1973. The first installment of Volume 4 (a paperback fascicle) was published in 2005. The hardback volume 4A was published in 2011. Additional fascicle installments are planned for release approximately biannually.

Something that is all in the mind? Or more a way of making things work well?