Code Craft

Part I. AT THE CODEFACE

Programmers write programs. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out. But there is a more subtle distinction: Only good programmers habitually write good code. Bad programmers . . . don’t. They create messes that take more effort to fix than they did to write.

Which would you rather be?

Code craft starts at the codeface; it’s where we love to be. We programmers are never happier than when immersed in an editor, bashing out line after line of perfectly formed and well-executed source code. We’d be quite happy if the world around us disappeared in a puff of boolean logic. Sadly, the Real World isn’t going anywhere—and it doesn’t seem willing to keep itself to itself.

Around your carefully crafted code, the world is in ...