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`Writing C code is very simple', one guy related to my work said.
I'm not sure whether he is an expert or not. What he said about C
programming like this can't convince me. I think there should be two
kinds of people can make such a comment on C programming. One is C
expert with rich experiences of some years on real projects; The other
is opportunist idiocy of C programming.

What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?

Thinks for your messages and opinion.

lovecreatesbeauty <> wrote:

> What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?

Writing code in any language worth writing in is an art.

--
Christopher Benson-Manica | I *should* know what I'm talking about - if I
ataru(at)cyberspace.org | don't, I need to know. Flames welcome.

lovecreatesbeauty wrote:
> `Writing C code is very simple', one guy related to my work said.
> I'm not sure whether he is an expert or not. What he said about C
> programming like this can't convince me. I think there should be two
> kinds of people can make such a comment on C programming. One is C
> expert with rich experiences of some years on real projects; The other
> is opportunist idiocy of C programming.
>
> What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?
>
> Thinks for your messages and opinion.

The act of writing code is simple. Getting it to work right is the
hard bit.

C has a shallow but long learning curve; you can start writing useful
code almost immediately, but it takes a long time to truly master the
language. There are a lot of quirks and special cases and things that
seem obvious but really aren't that you have to learn over time. C can
be frustratingly subtle one moment and just plain brain-damaged the
next.

I wouldn't say it's qualitatively more difficult to write C code than
any other language. However, the bulk of my experience is in older
3GLs (C, Fortran, Ada, etc.), so take that with the appropriate dose of
salt.

Develop a program, in any programming language, is not simple.

Relation between programmer experience and programmer who things that
programming is not easy is directly proportional.

In article < .com>,
lovecreatesbeauty <> wrote:
>`Writing C code is very simple', one guy related to my work said.

Writing English is `very simple', too ... for some definition
of `very simple'. How many English-language writers can turn
out *good* short stories, or novels, or poetry?

>What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?

All coding is art, as is all poetry. The question is not "is it
art" but rather: "is it good?"
--
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Wind River Systems
Salt Lake City, UT, USA (40°39.22'N, 111°50.29'W) +1 801 277 2603
email: forget about it http://web.torek.net/torek/index.html
Reading email is like searching for food in the garbage, thanks to spammers.

lovecreatesbeauty said:

> `Writing C code is very simple', one guy related to my work said.

He's right. But nobody said it was easy.

--
Richard Heathfield
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29/7/1999
http://www.cpax.org.uk
email: rjh at above domain (but drop the www, obviously)

Chris Torek <> writes:
> In article < .com>,
> lovecreatesbeauty <> wrote:
>>`Writing C code is very simple', one guy related to my work said.
>
> Writing English is `very simple', too ... for some definition
> of `very simple'. How many English-language writers can turn
> out *good* short stories, or novels, or poetry?
>
>>What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?
>
> All coding is art, as is all poetry. The question is not "is it
> art" but rather: "is it good?"

I'd say that coding is a craft, not an art. The difference is that a
C program can be unambiguously wrong; art, on the other hand, is in
the mind of the beholder.

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst- <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <*> <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.

"Chris Torek" <> wrote in message
news:...
> In article < .com>,
> lovecreatesbeauty <> wrote:
>>What do you think of C programming? Is writing C code an art?
>
> All coding is art, as is all poetry. The question is not "is it
> art" but rather: "is it good?"
>
<OT>
There is an unfortunate (for this matter) duality to the meaning of the word
'art' in the English language. Coding is certainly an art in the sense that
is close to 'skill', or something similar. However, I don't see how one
could make a case about coding being an art in the other sense (like
painting, music or whatnot). Sure, you can find beauty even in code, both
writing it and reading it, but that's a bit of a stretch in my opinion. I
think "other people" think saying coding (or math for that matter) is an art
(in the poetry sense) is extremely geeky I don't care much about that as
such, but thinking about comparing even the most beautiful piece of code
with a 'quality' poem seems silly On the other hand, a whole bunch of
things are considered art by the "highly cultured people" (like a straight
line of black paint on a square meter of white paper), so I guess coding can
beat that without braking a sweat
</OT>

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 19:32:46 GMT, in comp.lang.c , Keith Thompson
<kst-> wrote:

>Chris Torek <> writes:

>> All coding is art, as is all poetry. The question is not "is it
>> art" but rather: "is it good?"
>
>I'd say that coding is a craft, not an art. The difference is that a
>C program can be unambiguously wrong; art, on the other hand, is in
>the mind of the beholder.

I guess some would argue that Picasso's cubist stuff was unambiguously
wrong with regard to key aspects of drawing, eg perspective. Others
don't care. It pretty much depends what you want it to do for you.
Mark McIntyre
--

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>"Chris Torek" <> wrote in message
>news:...
>> All coding is art, as is all poetry. The question is not "is it
>> art" but rather: "is it good?"

In article <doupfp$ni4$>
buda <> wrote:
><OT>
>There is an unfortunate (for this matter) duality to the meaning of the word
>'art' in the English language.

Actually, I was using this in my reply, because good poetry makes
effective use of ambiguity.

>Coding is certainly an art in the sense that
>is close to 'skill', or something similar.

Yes. Or -- I think this is actually a better analogy than poetry,
but it did not lend itself as much to the desired ambiguity --
architecture (as in buildings), which includes both "engineering"
aspects (it is bad if the building falls down) and "beauty" aspects
(unadorned concrete buildings may be structurally sound but are
usually considered ugly).

>However, I don't see how one could make a case about coding being
>an art in the other sense (like painting, music or whatnot). Sure,
>you can find beauty even in code, both writing it and reading it,
>but that's a bit of a stretch in my opinion.

Without stretching at all, I find some code quite beautiful, and
some code quite ugly. On the other hand, it is true that there is
no accounting for taste.

(The original poster failed, in my opinion anyway, to distinguish
clearly whether he was interested in "algorithmic and syntactic
beauty", "engineering soundness", or both. In my experience,
neither is trivial in *any* programming language. But some languages
are more obtrusive than others: Fortran-66 and COBOL make "clean
syntax" difficult, for instance.)
--
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Wind River Systems
Salt Lake City, UT, USA (40°39.22'N, 111°50.29'W) +1 801 277 2603
email: forget about it http://web.torek.net/torek/index.html
Reading email is like searching for food in the garbage, thanks to spammers.