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Elegant code

2014-02-05 19:25:55.899994+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

Your code may be elegant, but mine f***ing works.

I think much of my recent disagreement with Perl comes from people trying to build "elegant" solutions in it. We end up with side effects and overloaded behaviors and code that has some sort of intellectual elegance to it, but is just a freakin' nightmare to read and maintain.

C++ has some of that, but it's far less celebrated in the culture. Going back to C++ and being able to easily see what and how is causing the failure (and, you understand, I'm saying this about C++) is opening my eyes to just how bad it has gotten.

[ related topics: Perl Open Source Sociology California Culture hubris ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2014-02-05 20:39:59.345085+00 by: meuon

We need t-shirts that say that.

#Comment Re: made: 2014-02-06 13:42:42.790474+00 by: TheSHAD0W

"Elegant" and "freakin' nightmare to read and maintain" are not compatible. If it's that hard to work on, then it's not elegant.