Writers can write anything. Programmers can't

Resonates. The concept is basically that written word may inspire or produce joy, but code is about producing results, so no results means no real value.

The part I like is bringing coding back to results.

But the comparison of "coding as results only" vs "writing as expression only" is a strawman.

Professional Writers write to earn a living, persuade, inform or entertain, probably choosing two or three of those as much as possible. If you don't have readers and you don't entertain persuade or make a living, your writing has failed by the same metric your Professional Coder's code has if it failed to solve the problem.

But in the personal / semi professional worked, writing for its own sake is called practice, as is coding for its own sake. Neither of those have intrinsic value, beyond learning, and if something good results, then sharing.

Re: Writers can write anything. Programmers can't

#5

Post by iamcurious » Sun, Mar 03, 2024, 3:56 PM UTC

I appreciate measuring productive when profit is the objective. Still, there exists code that does resonate and evoke emotional response. Quines, code golf, adding a paradigms to a lisp in a few lines of code, categorical haskell or the Doom wtf algorithm.

Beauty is something to strive for, it is just not the purpose of business programming. Unless you are Dijkstra.

Re: Writers can write anything. Programmers can't

#6

Post by Zild » Sun, Mar 03, 2024, 3:56 PM UTC

Requirements are important and some organizations and all kind of engineers struggle to define or follow them. However I don't agree with the article that one has to choose between creativity vs defining and following requirements. There is space for both and the context of the business will clarify the most suited balance.

Re: Writers can write anything. Programmers can't

#7

Post by linguistbreaker » Sun, Mar 03, 2024, 3:57 PM UTC

I think you can make art out of just about anything. Constraints and limitations add to art, not detract. I'm certain plenty of people add artistic flourishes into their work. There's no shortage of code used to create art. The code itself can be artful as well.

Similarly writing can be used for non-artistic and more practical purposes.

I just see so many counter examples I wonder if I'm missing the point.

Re: Writers can write anything. Programmers can't

#8

Post by rohanmahen » Sun, Mar 03, 2024, 3:58 PM UTC

jvanderbot wrote: post #4

Resonates. The concept is basically that written word may inspire or produce joy, but code is about producing results, so no results means no real value. The part I like is bringing coding back to results. But the comparison of "coding as results only" vs "writing as expression only" is a strawman. Professional Writers write to earn a living, persuade, inform or entertain, probably choosing two or three of those as m…

Heard definitely. I guess I was trying to liken "building product" to "writing a passion piece". Definitely not all writing vs all coding should have been more clear.

Re: Writers can write anything. Programmers can't

#9

Post by kayodelycaon » Sun, Mar 03, 2024, 3:58 PM UTC

Yeah… I’m both a software developer and an author. This is crap.

Code is like words. If they don’t make a complete whole, you’re not doing it right. You can have the most beautiful words and even sentences, but if you have no story or convey no information, you have completely failed to produce anything of worth.

For me, it’s the end result, the resilience of what I have made, that matters.

You can get caught up in the elegance of any level. You can have a perfect, beautiful product and miss the market. Maybe something uglier works better than your art piece for a company's purposes.

Re: Writers can write anything. Programmers can't

#10

Post by rohanmahen » Sun, Mar 03, 2024, 3:59 PM UTC

iamcurious wrote: post #5

I appreciate measuring productive when profit is the objective. Still, there exists code that does resonate and evoke emotional response. Quines, code golf, adding a paradigms to a lisp in a few lines of code, categorical haskell or the Doom wtf algorithm. Beauty is something to strive for, it is just not the purpose of business programming. Unless you are Dijkstra.

Definitely – I guess I was going for "building product" more than writing code.