Skip Collins <skip.coll...@gmail.com> writes: > 2012/1/10 François Pinard <pin...@iro.umontreal.ca>: >> Some sad people think of me as a programmer. While deep down, I am >> fundamentally an artist. Programming is mere mean of expression :-). > > You and Jambunathan K. should form a club.
Since I am being dragged in to the conversaion, I am digging out a reddit post that resonated with me (in a totally different setting). The clincher is actually the last paragraph and you need to read the first few paragraphs to enjoy the last one. There is also a story at the end of this post for everyone to ponder about. ,---- From http://www.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/if08k/when_did_you_first_discover_the_illusory_nature/ | At some point in my teens I'd started doing C programming. If you | don't know, computer code is usually formatted in a systematic way to | make it easier to read. Most languages give you a lot of freedom in | this, so every project has its own coding conventions. | | I was really into Linux and assumed Linus Torvalds was probably the | most wonderful genius hacker of all time. He's got his own write-up | about the Linux kernel coding style, which you can read here if you | happen to be interested. Some quotes: | | First off, I'd suggest printing out a copy of the GNU coding | standards, and NOT read it. Burn them, it's a great symbolic | gesture. | | [...] | | Tabs are 8 characters, and thus indentations are also 8 | characters. There are heretic movements that try to make | indentations 4 (or even 2! [this is the GNU standard]) characters | deep, and that is akin to trying to define the value of PI to be | 3. | | [...] | | You've probably been told by your long-time Unix user helper that | "GNU emacs" automatically formats the C sources for you, and | you've noticed that yes, it does do that, but the defaults it uses | are less than desirable (in fact, they are worse than random | typing - an infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would | never make a good program). | | So I read this at an impressionable age and it all seemed very obvious | and plainly true. Linux kernel source code, you could tell by just the | aesthetic impression of the code style, was fast, clean, and smart. It | looked good. On the other hand, the source code for GNU projects had a | weird & ugly style. | | Here's some Linux-style code: | | static char *concat(char *s1, char *s2) | { | while (x == y) { | something(); | somethingelse(); | } | finalthing(); | } | | Here's the corresponding GNU-style code: | | static char * | concat (char *s1, char *s2) | { | while (x == y) | { | something (); | somethingelse (); | } | finalthing (); | } | | But then I started using GNU Emacs and became fascinated by the | founder of GNU, Richard Stallman, who wrote Emacs and popularized this | coding convention. I gradually began to think Linus was kind of | annoying and not as profoundly creative as rms (as Mr. Stallman is | known). | | Then one day I noticed that Linux kernel code looked weird & ugly and | GNU code looked fast, clean, and smart. This was now the obvious and | plain truth. When I noticed myself feeling like this, it was obvious | that something was seriously weird with the aesthetic sense. | | And that's when I realized that subconscious judgments filter | experience in a very strange way. So I couldn't really trust myself | anymore. It was like glimpsing some uncanny fluttering in the veils of | my ego delusion... dun dun dun! | | How weird is this story? `---- My own opinion on the matter is: Great hackers have *a* style and stick religiously to it. But they remain steady and productive (even) when working with a dump (pun intended) from a different school. ,---- From http://users.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/concentrate.html | After winning several archery contests, the young and rather boastful | champion challenged a Zen master who was renowned for his skill as an | archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable technical proficiency | when he hit a distant bull's eye on his first try, and then split that | arrow with his second shot. "There," he said to the old man, "see if | you can match that!" Undisturbed, the master did not draw his bow, but | rather motioned for the young archer to follow him up the | mountain. Curious about the old fellow's intentions, the champion | followed him high into the mountain until they reached a deep chasm | spanned by a rather flimsy and shaky log. Calmly stepping out onto the | middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master | picked a far away tree as a target, drew his bow, and fired a clean, | direct hit. "Now it is your turn," he said as he gracefully stepped | back onto the safe ground. Staring with terror into the seemingly | bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself | to step out onto the log, no less shoot at a target. "You have much | skill with your bow," the master said, sensing his challenger's | predicament, "but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose | the shot." `---- Jambunathan K. --