Programmers are logical people and it is not suprising that somebody on the
list took the quote to its true logical conclusion and Jim Self's comment
did take it to its logical conclusion. I really doubt if perfection is a
simple monotonic function of the amount you take away (or the amount you
add). The quote itself is an example. It is not really that simple.
The quote was not abrasive, but food for thought!
Jim Gray
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Woodhouse" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 3:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Hardhats-members] Objects vs. Types
I had no idea that the quotes I include in my signature were abrasive,
and I certainly did not mean any of them to be anti-life in any sense.
Maybe it's just the way I think about software (or computing in
general), but I'm a big fan of simplicity and elegance. This statement,
which I intend here as a plea for minimalism, really got my attention
(hit me like a ton of bricks) when I was developing HL7 interfaces
between VistA and COTS systems. It was clear after as few as two such
interfaces that I was doing essentially the same things each time, with
only small variations to account for the details of each interface. (In
one case, I was updating a fund balance, in another various information
associated with a vendor). To me, it was clear that it would be
relatively easy to abstract away from the specific problem, creating,
instead, an "interface compiler" that could be used to re-implement
these interfaces I coded by hand, drawing all the particulars of the
interface from a simple high level description, and this is exactly
what I did.
I don't mean to say this boastfully, only to suggest that progress in
computing comes not from simply writing more and more code, addressing
each special situation as it arises, but by "taking away" that which is
special and solving the more general (abstract) problem *once*. I
believe we can ultimately accomplish much more if we think more about
the nature of what we are doing and try to solve the basic, underlying
problems, rather than just crank out code "on demand".
Okay, okay, enough of my soapbox. I didn't put that quote there to
preach to anyone else so much as I put it there because it is
meaningful to *me*. I'm a big believer in the principle of parsimony,
and when I can find a solution that captures the essence of a problem
without being cluttered by unnecessary detail, that is an indication
(again, to me) that I'm on the right track.
--- Jim Self <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Gregory Woodhouse wrote:
>"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more
>to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
>-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Since you keep blessing us with these quotes, I feel compelled to
respond.
The notion of perfection here seems anti-life.
Such perfection would be achieved in death or numerically in zero.
Was that the point? Or did Antoine have a sense of humor?
Did he understand negative numbers? Fractions? Asymtotes?
Was he poking fun at those who take perfection or themselves too
seriously?
---------------------------------------
Jim Self
Systems Architect, Lead Developer
VMTH Computer Services, UC Davis
(http://www.vmth.ucdavis.edu/us/jaself)
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===
Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more
to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle
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Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf
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