I can see it in my head
Posted by Trixter on March 15, 2008
I ran across a wonderful quote the other day regarding programming. It almost perfectly describes what exactly I enjoy about programming and why:
Programming…is an act of creation. From a simple thought, and the arrangement of a few words and symbols, a reality is created that did not exist before.
No other activity can keep you in the moment the way that writing software can. At each step, one hundred percent of your concentration is applied to the solving of the current problem. Time disappears.
A well written program is a work of art. From conception to final presentation, the activity is that of an artist – the embodiment of a dream world expressed as an interactive experience for the user. — Peter Jennings
I can see MONOTONE in my head; how it works, how it sounds, and what it is like to use it. I hope I can finish it this weekend.
Oldskooler Ramblings 
phoenix said
I hope so too. :) I met up with Necros (he’s on tour) last night, he’s looking forward to trying it out as well.
jim said
“The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.
Yet the program construct, unlike the poet’s words, is real in the sense that it moves and works, producing visible outputs separately from the construct itself. It prints results, draws pictures, produces sounds, moves arms. The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life, showing things that never were nor could be.
The computer resembles the magic of legend in this respect, too. If one character, one pause, of the incantation is not strictly in proper form, the magic doesn’t work. Human beings are not accustomed to being perfect, and few areas of human activity demand it. Adjusting to the requirement for perfection is, I think, the most difficult part of learning to program.”
-Frederick P. Brooks
Trixter said
That trumps my quote :-) But they’re both awesome.