A Public Scratchpad

I figure that as a programmer, I should be aware of the classic literature in the field. Most lists of must-read computer science books include The Mythical Man-Month, a collection of essays by Frederick Brooks. First published in 1975, it presents the author’s views and opinions on the subject of software engineering, as informed by his experiences in managing the deveopment of OS/360 at IBM.

I haven’t gotten through the whole thing yet, but I’ve found it very interesting and informative thus far. There is one section in particular, in the essay called The Tar Pit, which I like. It provides a nice description of the creativeness which is often involved in programming:

As the child delights in his mud pie, so the adult enjoys building things, especially things of his own design. I think this delight must be an image of God’s delight in making things, a delight shown in the distinctness and newness of each leaf and each snowflake…

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 separate 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.

It’s a good thing that there are people out there who can verbalize ideas this well. Especially when, like Bach, they sign their work SDG — Soli Deo Gloria.