For me, the memorable pieces of code are those that made me "want to become a programmer", to choose the path I chose, way back in the day.
Unsurprisingly, these were games:
1) A C64 "SnakeByte-like" game, whose exact name I forgot. It was written entirely in BASIC 2.0 (so you could list and read the source code), and with me having no C64 manual, and no English, it was a true revelation. So much fun and beauty emerging from such a concise, approachable program!
2) An ancient five-in-a-row implementation, I think in BASIC again or maybe Pascal. I remember the shock after seeing how simple the code was, compared to its (surprisingly good) playing strength and speed. My github user name, "piskvorky", is an echo of this old experience :-)
The underlying appeal seems to be a combination of simple, elegant rules giving rise to complex and fun behaviour. That, to me, is elegance.
Unsurprisingly, these were games:
1) A C64 "SnakeByte-like" game, whose exact name I forgot. It was written entirely in BASIC 2.0 (so you could list and read the source code), and with me having no C64 manual, and no English, it was a true revelation. So much fun and beauty emerging from such a concise, approachable program!
2) An ancient five-in-a-row implementation, I think in BASIC again or maybe Pascal. I remember the shock after seeing how simple the code was, compared to its (surprisingly good) playing strength and speed. My github user name, "piskvorky", is an echo of this old experience :-)
The underlying appeal seems to be a combination of simple, elegant rules giving rise to complex and fun behaviour. That, to me, is elegance.