There's similarities between composition in programming and painting or for that matter anything that involves fixing seperate entities together to create combined forms/structures/functions. and you can appreciate it for yourself, as a programmer atleast, when working on a piece of code, when the whole thing comes together after focusing on a specific aspect to do such and such (maybe a generalised function for handling x & y & z), when after, when it works, suddenly realise that by making it work you've opened up a whole set of possibilities previously outside your awareness. then it can seem like art.
http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=*&Query=art >From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 : Art \Art\ ([aum]rt), n. [F. art, L. ars, artis, orig., skill in joining or fitting; prob. akin to E. arm, aristocrat, article.] 1. The employment of means to accomplish some desired end; the adaptation of things in the natural world to the uses of life; the application of knowledge or power to practical purposes. [1913 Webster] Blest with each grace of nature and of art. --Pope. [1913 Webster] 2. A system of rules serving to facilitate the performance of certain actions; a system of principles and rules for attaining a desired end; method of doing well some special work; -- often contradistinguished from science or speculative principles; as, the art of building or engraving; the art of war; the art of navigation. [1913 Webster] Science is systematized knowledge . . . Art is knowledge made efficient by skill. --J. F. Genung. [1913 Webster] 3. The systematic application of knowledge or skill in effecting a desired result. Also, an occupation or business requiring such knowledge or skill. [1913 Webster] The fishermen can't employ their art with so much success in so troubled a sea. --Addison. [1913 Webster] 4. The application of skill to the production of the beautiful by imitation or design, or an occupation in which skill is so employed, as in painting and sculpture; one of the fine arts; as, he prefers art to literature. [1913 Webster] 5. pl. Those branches of learning which are taught in the academical course of colleges; as, master of arts. [1913 Webster] In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts. --Pope. [1913 Webster] Four years spent in the arts (as they are called in colleges) is, perhaps, laying too laborious a foundation. --Goldsmith. [1913 Webster] 6. Learning; study; applied knowledge, science, or letters. [Archaic] [1913 Webster] So vast is art, so narrow human wit. --Pope. [1913 Webster] 7. Skill, dexterity, or the power of performing certain actions, acquired by experience, study, or observation; knack; as, a man has the art of managing his business to advantage. [1913 Webster] 8. Skillful plan; device. [1913 Webster] They employed every art to soothe . . . the discontented warriors. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] 9. Cunning; artifice; craft. [1913 Webster] Madam, I swear I use no art at all. --Shak. [1913 Webster] Animals practice art when opposed to their superiors in strength. --Crabb. [1913 Webster] 10. The black art; magic. [Obs.] --Shak. [1913 Webster] _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
