Amen then that Greg -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Greg Woodhouse Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 5:53 PM To: [email protected] 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) > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > SF.Net email is Sponsored by the Better Software Conference & EXPO > September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle > Practices > Agile & Plan-Driven Development * Managing Projects & Teams * Testing > & QA > Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * > http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf > _______________________________________________ > Hardhats-members mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > === 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 ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is Sponsored by the Better Software Conference & EXPO September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle Practices Agile & Plan-Driven Development * Managing Projects & Teams * Testing & QA Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is Sponsored by the Better Software Conference & EXPO September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle Practices Agile & Plan-Driven Development * Managing Projects & Teams * Testing & QA Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
