From: Mike Stok <mike@...>
Date: 2002-05-14T09:28:43+09:00
Subject: Re: OT:is software eng an art?

In article <007501c1faba$6be02fc0$0300a8c0@austin.rr.com>, Hal E. Fulton wrote:

> As an aside: Much of what has been said about "art" in this 
> thread I don't consider really true. Some of it is a reflection of
> twentieth century thought which is sometimes a little out in 
> left field. For example, I don't agree that art doesn't require
> discipline. I don't agree that it is always subjective and amenable
> to multiple interpretations. And I don't agree with the artist who
> once said, "Isn't the purpose of art to shock people?" Pish and tush!
> The purpose is creativity, beauty, and truth (any of which may
> sometimes be shocking, of course).

I know someone has already mentioned Knuth, but if you have a copy of "Literate
Programming" on your bookself (or know of a library which has it) then it is
worth reading the first chapter from 1974 "Computer Programming as an Art"

  Our discussion indicates that computer progranmming is by now both
  a science and an art, and that the two aspects nicely complement 
  each other.  Apparently most authors who examine such a question
  come to this same conclusion, that their subject is both a science
  and an art, whatever their subject is.

Mike

....and after you've read that, another fun read is "Philosophy in the
Flesh - The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought" by George
Lakoff and Mark Johnson...

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