Is Programming Art?

chromatic writes "A constant question for software developers is 'What is the nature of programming?' Is it art or science? Does creativity or engineering lead the design and implementation of a program? John Littler talked to several well-known and well-respected programmers (including Guido van Rossum, Andy Hunt, Bjarne Stroustrup, Paul Graham, and Richard Stallman) to find their answers; he shares their thoughts and his own in Art and Computer Programming." From the article: "What the heck is art anyway, at least as most people understand it? What do people mean when they say 'art'? A straw poll showed a fair degree of consensus--art is craft plus a special degree of inspiration. This pretty much explains immediately why only art students and art critics at a certain sort of paper favor conceptual art. Conceptual art, of course, often lacks a craft component as people usually understand the term."

Comments

Well...

[Donniedarkness]

Programmers do meet one of the requirements that you have to meet to be considered an artist: They make no money.

Re:Not a fine art

[Waffle Iron]

Unfortunately, most software on the market seems to have been written by the "Dogs Playing Poker" programmers.

Re:Not a fine art

[squidfood]

Unfortunately, most software on the market seems to have been written by the "Dogs Playing Poker" programmers.

And there's a market for that. Hence, Visual Basic.