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Agreed.
I also like to inject descriptive variables. One team member would “format”/delete them away:
eg
boolean goodName = complicated not so clear expression;
if goodName …
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I "do" that too except that the meaning of descriptive floats and drifts with time, what's descriptive to me today might not be as descriptive in a month to also me or someone else.
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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When I was part of the team developing OS400 (for the IBM AS/400 and follow on systems) a key goal for me was first failure data capture - so that if a failure occurred there was enough data being logged to find the cause without having to reproduce the error. It didn't always work, but was a worthy goal.
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Yes, yes I do. My personal objective is to code in the most boring possible way. I lost count of the amount of times I cursed my past self for my bright ideas.
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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den2k88 wrote: I cursed my past self for my bright ideas
Some times the past is only half an hour; and yesterday is a life time ago
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It definitely happened within the same week.
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Amen!
Charlie Gilley
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Has never been more appropriate.
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Spot on! I absolutely respect all those who bring artistry to their craft, but I have also lived through several projects where the "artistry" was applied with zero regard for timelines, TCO, budget, maintainability, or what the client actually asked for.
Some of the artistry, IMHO, comes in knowing when boring and predictable makes more sense.
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whats the point you can't c++ your way though life you need to look for the pointers...
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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Only smart pointers though 
GCS/GE d--(d) s-/+ a C+++ U+++ P-- L+@ E-- W+++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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You use the word 'craft'. I like to think of myself as a craftsman. I enjoy, and take pride in, what I do, I like to make a good job of it and I like it when the code is, in some sense, beautiful (it isn't always!)
Paul Sanders.
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter - Blaise Pascal.
Some of my best work is in the undo buffer.
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I think you are conflating "hacks," and "clever solutions "with "art."
Someone at a high-level of competency with the tools and materials in a certain domain can experience aesthetic qualities when they look at something built using those tools and materials.
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
modified 6-Oct-22 8:46am.
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A far more concise and cogent reply than I could muster first thing in the morning, Bill.
Thank you.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Hi, Gary,Gary Wheeler wrote: first thing in the morning
Well, I am probably 11 hours ahead of you  (GMT + 7).
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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Yes, plus I don't operate well under caffeine deficit.
Software Zen: delete this;
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I think you make a good point.
I thought he might be saying the same thing Einstein said: 
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
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What a wonderful quote !
my favorite Einstein quote:
“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the 'Universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest ... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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I agree that higher skill levels of software engineering cannot be taught. I daresay the same thing can be said about e.g. mechanical engineering.
I used to think of it as art, when I was much younger. These days I would mosdef not use the word art to describe it. Just like for example ball-sense cannot be taught (nor be called art).
If forced to pick an expression would just call it exceptional ability, even if there are some art-like properties to it. Like watching Roger Federer playing tennis.
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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I am going to attempt using the cook as some analogy
home cooking, and that indie made app you use on your phone. Do you care how its made vs the end result works, tastes great, and minimal issues that you happy to wave off, like the plate a little messy looking.
dime a dozen restaurant around the corner. and something you paying money for. again you dont care about the recipe steps, what the back end looks like, as long as comes out presented nice, tastes good and such. End result vs the process of being made. Now if add in that they say will be 30 minutes, and ends up being 2 hours, that starts eating at how the backend and front end tied together
now you are a chief and working at a new kitchen. Are the instructions from higher up good, is it layed out in a form that seen at other kitchens meaning minimal effort to get in and start. Why the fish guy plating up before source ready. A great cook cant slot into a kitchen if the kitchen it self not ready.
Same for the one creating the menu list, does it make sense, does it fit with ingredients have and staff available to deliver. you want to server 200 people with 3 staff over 2 hours, uhm
End result vs needs to integrate and work with others. Sure Bill might make some amazing looking, short code that runs 5% faster, but what good is that if uses patterns that the other 10 behind will end up tripping over themselves because not everyone can figure out regex, when using a string.contains be "good" enough.
not sure what the point written, but yes, craft/art sits high for software. is it the be all/end all. Do you need One mechanic that makes custom cars for 200k, or handful of workers that can make run of the mill car that meets and exceeds safty standards.
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I propose that it is only your unfamiliarity with structural engineering that makes you feel that anyone can be great at it. It takes a very skilled eye to recognize really excellent software development only by running the completed program, and probably an equally skilled eye to distinguish one curtain-wall tower from another just by walking past it.
You notice bad structural engineering when something falls down or blows up, which may take a human lifetime. You notice the quality of structural engineering when actually building the structure, when you either do or do not have to improvise patches to weaknesses in the design. I'm not sure anyone but a builder can recognize really marvelous structural engineering.
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Probably.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Ah, a shorter version might be... 
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
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I love the way you expressed this. Yes, there's a search for elegance and beauty in low level coding that is second only to the search for the most elegant of mathematical proofs. Engineers can find it, they need a certain attachment to symbolic meandering, but also there's that quality that is the cherry on top for being a genius, the inner poet. Such a level of creativity ultimately caters to the performance boost and efficiency of ever lesser waste of clock cycles, but it also delights learned individuals.
We should all take a page from The Story of Mel [^].
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I consider myself an excellent SQL coder. At least I used to be.
But I owe all but the basics to a person I've never met. A true master.
I inherited his code when he left the job. His code taught me things I never would have seen in or out of a classroom. I'm certain he was younger than me, based on the descriptions others gave of him.
I thank my lucky stars I got that lesson.
I'm not sure we can assess our own top level without seeing something and wishing we had written it.
Or perhaps even then.
Then there's the Dunning–Kruger effect. And the sciolists of the world. Who among us hasn't seen those?
Yet I think the person experiencing it doesn't know it.
When I was a kid, someone stuck me in a choir. After a bit of time the choir director told me not to sing the words but to just move my lips. A monotone.
Yet now I sing well, according to others. Probably I just had to grow into my voice. But I never pursued music after that.
The last is just food for thought.
Good subject for rumination.
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