And in my own opinion on the matter, I consider my source code to be art. I'm speaking simply about the way that the text on the screen appears -- symmetrical and balanced, with margins and lines flowing in and out to represent the structure of my thoughts, with beautiful blocks of comments dancing atop each block, all the similar operators on adjacent lines column aligned... I derive pure joy from just viewing a properly structured source file.
Perhaps it's not art -- rather just aesthetics -- but for me it's an expression of my love for the work that I do -- much like Linus said in his quote. It also makes reviewing old code much easier and more enjoyable than when it's a garbled mess of left-aligned or non-commented rubbish. The true joy? When a talented group of developers all discover a love for that same aesthetic, and over the years each of their code in all its perfect beauty becomes indistinguishable amoung them.
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And in my own opinion on the matter, I consider my source code to be art. I'm speaking simply about the way that the text on the screen appears -- symmetrical and balanced, with margins and lines flowing in and out to represent the structure of my thoughts, with beautiful blocks of comments dancing atop each block, all the similar operators on adjacent lines column aligned... I derive pure joy from just viewing a properly structured source file.
Perhaps it's not art -- rather just aesthetics -- but for me it's an expression of my love for the work that I do -- much like Linus said in his quote. It also makes reviewing old code much easier and more enjoyable than when it's a garbled mess of left-aligned or non-commented rubbish. The true joy? When a talented group of developers all discover a love for that same aesthetic, and over the years each of their code in all its perfect beauty becomes indistinguishable amoung them.