

Programming less - bootload
http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/11/28/programmingLess.html

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mojuba
_Your code at its kernel level must have this simplicity. But at the edges,
where you're accommodating the minds of users, inevitably it gets a little
messy._

Absolutely. Your core code is usually targeted to programmers, that is,
(hopefully) formally thinking folks, so you may choose to be as succinct as
possible here. At the same time UI code may become illogical, non-linear mess
only because their users can't think formally. Bookkeeping/accounting software
is a perfect example.

Those developers who prefer working on compilers, libraries or operating
systems are actually those who want to get the most out of programming.
Maximum joy, that is.

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gills
I agree that simplicity and elegance are key, but in my experience the UI does
not _inevitably_ get messy. The same rules apply, but you have to work at
different levels of abstraction. The central structure and algorithms of a UI
are no longer about the data itself, but about transforming the data (and
transforming the transformer!). There's a special brand of programmer crack
reserved for those who create elegant and flexible UI code.

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adnam
I wish people would test their pages with a text-only browser more. The
article whole article was interspersed with the phrase "permalink to this
paragraph"

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philh
Even in a graphical browser, I found the permalink icons really intrusive. I'm
used to things like that being used to sign off posts
(<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/29/erskine_steps_down/>), and it breaks
the flow to see them at the end of every paragraph.

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edw519
"The design of the central data structure of an app determines the quality of
the app, in every way."

Wow!

As Edward Everett wrote to Abraham Lincoln the day after the Gettysburg
address:

"I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central
idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes."

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downer
dicts FTW.

