Coding is Writing // 18-11-19

   There was a recent discussion on [1]C.S about good coding and the bad
   habit of lazy coders to include big libraries instead of coding small
   elements by themselves, c.f the [2]leftpad incident. (Of course it's
   not a discussion only held on C.S...)

   This had me thinking a bit more (I'm also one of those people prone to
   getting ideas while taking a relaxing shower, so blame this post to
   warm water, if you like!) about writing and coding.

   Whenever I've finished some small coding project (or at least got it
   out of beta state), I have that feeling of "coding is done, now get
   back to real writing and do lots of posts or even a book chapter!" But
   it never works out, because at most a day later I remember all the
   other projects still pending. And so I'll never become a Real Writer
   (TM)! _sob_

   Well, no. Coding is Writing as well, and IMHO, it's not worth less if
   it is done with similar good intentions! What do I mean by that? Good
   coders:
     * do it for themselves, and if they get some money from it, that's
       nice, but not the primary motivation;
     * like to be proud of their code and want others to like reading it;
     * prefer their code to help and inspire others, and are fine with
       other people making use of it;
     * don't want to explain it a lot, and they rather try to write in a
       way that everything is clear upfront;
     * want their code to depend on other code as little as reasonable;
     * hope their code will live longer than just until next week.

   And in my book, that's similarly true for good writers.

   Therefore I have decided to be fine with me "just writing code" and not
   really much of "real litterature", because although the audience is
   different, the final aim and motivation is the same, in my opinion.

   To all coders every now and then reinventing the wheel -- even if just
   for having their own wheels!

   .:.

References

   1. gopher://circumlunar.space/
   2. https://left-pad.io/