You're equating english or jazz to programming? That seems, in a word, ridiculous.
The simile would be in trying to codify what kinds of _programs_ you could write. That would indeed be a very bad idea. Trying to codify _how_ you write them is something programming languages do pretty much by definition. The work of art is what your program can do. Not what your source looks like. Obfuscated C contest notwithstanding. On Sep 19, 6:03 pm, Josh Berry <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 1:43 AM, Reinier Zwitserloot > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > I usually get funny looks and stares when I argue this, but in my > > opinion a good programming language _defines_ style rules. > > Meh. I think it is a waste of time to worry about most of the style rules. > Not to mention, style is such a nebulous term that it is borderline idiotic > to really try and codify it. Imagine if you had a style for what prose > should read like. This is what most people try to do with programming. :) > (I saw a good analogy with Jazz the other day. Have you ever tried to > codify "good" music?) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
