Re:Applying the Linus Torvalds “Good Taste” Coding Requirement
by K0SM0S on Thursday October 27, 2016 @09:53AM
(#12805087)
As a rookie programmer (but 10 years in IT, loving maths), this was my thought exactly. Basically a matter of field/domain definition, insofar as humans still have to interact with the code.
In short: most enterprise code should be elegant and simple, even if verbose (many conditionals, as little nesting as possible, etc) so that a 12 years old can understand it, because in real life you'll get much turnover and lack of means/skill/motivation. Hence, costly maintenance, etc.
Writing an open-source kernel consistently for 20+ years is an entirely different problem, and the fact that you use code in both these examples is a distant commonality of the problem sets; it is my experience thus contention that the human factor and real world conditions are paramount to ascribing qualitative assertions such as 'good' or 'tasty'. That is, until machines program themselves or others without human oversight. ;)
In short: most enterprise code should be elegant and simple, even if verbose (many conditionals, as little nesting as possible, etc) so that a 12 years old can understand it, because in real life you'll get much turnover and lack of means/skill/motivation. Hence, costly maintenance, etc.
Writing an open-source kernel consistently for 20+ years is an entirely different problem, and the fact that you use code in both these examples is a distant commonality of the problem sets; it is my experience thus contention that the human factor and real world conditions are paramount to ascribing qualitative assertions such as 'good' or 'tasty'. That is, until machines program themselves or others without human oversight. ;)