Hello, I often consider programming to be a sub-class of art. I mean I take great pride in writing nice code that is stable and is easy to read and understand. I look down on people that write sloppy code that might be functional for one particular task and nothing more. I love structured and organized code, I think it''s a great task to write good code. I would say I''m kinda like a perfectionist at that. However Carmack would be like picasso his stuff look cool on screen but you can''t really make anything out of the code itself without going through hell, right? My question is: What kind of artist do you consider yourself to be? What are your opinions on code? Regards, Deficte

Uh... Actually, I just write my whole program in one source file. That way, it''s more challenging. And I love challenging my self and trying new ways to make my life hell.

I agree with deficite.
I always try to make my code as efficient as possible and as flexible as possible, try to allow for the code to be capable of more than is needed at the moment of coding.

See, there isn''t reall any need for blue windows screens if all programmers would take their coding seriously.

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If Bill Gates built planes he''d put Osama Bin Laden out of business.
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I suck at drawing, my code is normally sloppy as hell, BUT, me and my friends used to have contests on optomizing, and 99% of the time, my code was the fastest, so I could care less if it was sloppy, because in real life, it was more efficient, even if theirs looked prettier. It''s like buying a really nice body kit for a car, and putting it on a honda civic dx... it''s still slow as hell, no matter what it looks like .

A Guy From CRO: I do take my programming seriously, and I VERY rarely have bugs in my code, and if I do, they aren''t very hard to track down. My code isn''t "that" sloppy, it is readable, and understandable, and I split it up into multiple files depending on what classes/structures/functions are required. I do reuse parts of my code, but I don''t keep like a library of organized crap laying around or anything... when I need something, I go into a directory, copy the .h & .cpp files, and include them in my new project, modify them if something needs changing, and call it a day . You don''t need to keep your code as organized as a neat freak to have no bugs, you just have to be careful while coding. Even the cleanest of code can have an error, while the sloppiest of code can be bug free, or vice-versa.

I don''t consider good code to be art, I just consider it to be organized, easily readable, and most practical. I do however, consider the games that are made with the code to be art; as well as demos.

I try to make my code as organized as I can when I''m writing anything that will require me to look back at it later.

I like to keep my code nice and neat, I use OOP everywhere and most of my initlization code can be found in seprate libaries. I comment places which I think are nescary but I don''t overload it.
But when it comes down to speed my code looks like crap !

We aren''t mere, pathetic, obsolete "artists".

For we are GODS!

Hey, where did the God thread go?

It was moved to the lounge and closed.

Programming is an artform, and programmers are artists. Each programmer will solve a problem in a different way. A painter chooses a brush, a programmer chooses a programming language. A painter uses techniques learned from those before him in a way that shows the painters personality, as does a programmer. So my answer is the metaphor "A programmer is a painter." Simple, but true.

Philosophers prided themselves on logically derived wisdom, and programmers pride themselves on their logically derived software.



"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)