In my opinion, 'elegant' used to refer to speed and low memory usage. Speed can still be a concern - The batch system I work on currently handles millions of records a night in an 6 hour batch window. Anything we can do to cut that down makes the bosses happy.
Memory usage doesn't really matter anymore. You can't get really carried away, but it's not a priority.
Now, elegant mostly refers to maintainability. How easy is it for someone to pick up the code and figure out what it's doing? How easy is it to change? If the program goes down with an error due to bad data how quickly can the blurry-eyed on-call programmer find the error at 2:00 in the morning? How well is the code documented? Are the variable named in understandable ways?
I work on programs that were originally written 32 years ago. I'm a COBOL programmer. Yes it's still around, and no it's not dead. Maintainability is a huge priority to coders in our shop.
"Whatever you are, be a good one." ~ Abraham Lincoln
As a user of "coded products" in the office space and engineering, I see all the products as tools that have evolved to be exceptionally effective since I started writing basic engineering programs using punch cards. Many people can be taught to code and the tools today after decades of evolution and refinement permit non math focused people to perform. BUT, as a few here know coders rarely write programing software such as Fortran, C, or Python. A Python code jammer (like me now) can learn Python and effectively write code. Although I have a MS in CS, I am incapable of developing a new programming language..... a music major certainly is not.
I have a current interest in micropressor programming and have made some progress in this area in the winter at 9000 feet....started with Arduino and application to signel processing. The code BTW has been written for a number of the arduino applications but there is a lot of room for a programmer to develop custom software and interface vis the processor with real world projects. This activity is as an engineer where I find "Coding" really useful. Some folks confuse "data entry " with coding....but that is another story.
In the 1980's I was still working with a couple of old US Navy mainframes that had paper tape read/writers!
I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you.
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." - Henry Ford
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges; When the Republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous. - Publius Cornelius Tacitus
deltamrey wrote: As a user of "coded products" in the office space and engineering, I see all the products as tools that have evolved to be exceptionally effective since I started writing basic engineering programs using punch cards. Many people can be taught to code and the tools today after decades of evolution and refinement permit non math focused people to perform. BUT, as a few here know coders rarely write programing software such as Fortran, C, or Python. A Python code jammer (like me now) can learn Python and effectively write code. Although I have a MS in CS, I am incapable of developing a new programming language..... a music major certainly is not.
I have a current interest in micropressor programming and have made some progress in this area in the winter at 9000 feet....started with Arduino and application to signel processing. The code BTW has been written for a number of the arduino applications but there is a lot of room for a programmer to develop custom software and interface vis the processor with real world projects. This activity is as an engineer where I find "Coding" really useful. Some folks confuse "data entry " with coding....but that is another story.
I never ran across anyone who confused coding/programming with data entry.....that is weird.
I have...and certainly not weird. Many BS artists in that space today....recall the past CEO at Yahoo ? And Gore created the internet......yeah right. And Sculley did destroy APPLE.......much spin and jive.
Admirald Hopper BTW created COBAL.........just FYI.
I am in no way a programmer or coder. But a very long time ago for a class we each had to build a bread board circuit and write the assembly language code for a traffic light simulation, for extra credit we could do left turn lanes off of the "main street". It was a fun project. That will help you really understand how these things called computers really work.
Grady wrote: I am in no way a programmer or coder. But a very long time ago for a class we each had to build a bread board circuit and write the assembly language code for a traffic light simulation, for extra credit we could do left turn lanes off of the "main street". It was a fun project. That will help you really understand how these things called computers really work.
Was that a USN course? It sounds very familiar but I cannot quite get those brain cells to fire.
