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> Indeed. Like the fine carvings in inaccessible places in a cathedral, > invisible to everyone but the creator and the Creator. Thank you for this fine image. Probably out of context, but I couldn't help but think of words attributed to Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, 5th century BC: "invisible harmony is superior to the visible" Although both forms of harmony (or elegance) are probably important, in different ways. Tom De Herdt http://www.wulfila.be ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Kay To: xml-dev@l... Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 9:16 AM Subject: Re: Engineering versus Science, Anecdote versus Evidence ... [Was: Designing an experiment to gather evidence on approaches to designing web services] On 30/12/2011 01:41, David Lee wrote: > IMHO the art of software is often invisible to nearly everyone but the > creator. Indeed. Like the fine carvings in inaccessible places in a cathedral, invisible to everyone but the creator and the Creator. I take great delight in the internal poetry of code: making the source look good on the screen, eloquence in the choice of names, choosing the elegant design over the banal and obvious one. A joy of working for myself is that I don't have to try and rationalize why I do this; a joy of writing open source is that the enjoyment can be shared by others. This is definitely art rather than engineering, but I like to think that the pride in craftsmanship has beneficial side effects on the engineering metrics of the final artefact. But all this is an indulgence; it doesn't pay the wages. It's what a good craftsman does, but not what he is paid to do. The day job is engineering. There is also art, of course, in what is exposed to users: the external visual design. But that's a different question, and one where I have very little competence. Michael Kay Saxonica _______________________________________________________________________ XML-DEV is a publicly archived, unmoderated list hosted by OASIS to support XML implementation and development. To minimize spam in the archives, you must subscribe before posting. [Un]Subscribe/change address: http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/ Or unsubscribe: xml-dev-unsubscribe@l... subscribe: xml-dev-subscribe@l... List archive: http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ List Guidelines: http://www.oasis-open.org/maillists/guidelines.php
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