Steve, for the 1st 7 years of my development, I was proud
that I could develop complex apps. Then I got ashmed
of it.
This might inspire you, from my company's internal wiki/cut-paste,
maybe one of them
touches you, they all say same thing
.V :
(Vic Sekvenich)
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Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.
-Brian Kernighan
The difference between a good and a poor architect is that the poor architect
succumbs to every temptation and the good one resists it.
-Ludwig Wittgenstein
Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.
-Alan J. Perlis
Perfection (in design) is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but
rather when there is nothing more to take away.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The differences are not minor - they are rather like
the differences between Salieri and Mozart. Study
after study shows that the very best designers produce structures that are
faster, smaller, simpler, clearer, and produced with less effort.
- F. P. Brooks
Fools ignore complexity, experts avoid it; geniuses remove it.
-Alan Perlis
Complexity is a sign of technical immaturity. Simplicity of use is the real
sign of a well design product whether it is an ATM or a Patriot missile
- Daniel T. Ling
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the
unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
- Hans Hofmann
...Simplifications have had a much greater long-range scientific impact than
individual feats of ingenuity. The opportunity for simplification is very
encouraging, because in all examples that come to mind the simple and elegant
systems tend to be easier and faster to design and get right, more efficient in
execution, and much more reliable than the more contrived contraptions that
have to be debugged into some degree of acceptability....Simplicity
and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to
achieve and education to be appreciated.
-Edsger W. Dijkstra
Simplicity is the soul of efficiency.
- Austin Freeman
One of the great skills in using any language is knowing what
not to use, what not to say. … There's that simplicity thing again.
-Ron Jeffries
A designer can mull over complicated designs for months. Then suddenly
the simple, elegant, beautiful solution occurs to him. When it happens to you,
it feels as if God is talking! And maybe He is.
-Leo Frankowski
Programming languages should be designed not by piling
feature on top of feature, but by removing the weaknesses and restrictions that
make additional features appear necessary.
- Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language
Scheme
Increasingly, people seem to
misinterpret complexity as sophistication, which is baffling-the
incomprehensible should cause suspicion rather than admiration. Possibly this trend results from a mistaken belief that using a
somewhat mysterious device confers an aura of power on the user.
-Niklaus Wirth
A charlatan makes obscure what is clear; a thinker
makes clear what is obscure.
-Hugh Kingsmill
Newton was a genius, but not because of the superior computational power of his
brain. Newton's genius was, on the contrary, his ability to simplify, idealize,
and streamline the world so that it became, in some measure, tractable to the
brains of perfectly ordinary men.
-Gerald M. Weinberg
Comprehensiveness is the enemy of comprehensibility
-M. Fowler
Elegance is not optional.
- Richard A. O'Keefe
The best programmers write only easy programs.
- Michael A. Jackson
It is vain to do with more what can be done with less
- William of Ockham
Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere
else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate
defense against complexity.
- David Gelernter
Restraint shows the master’s hand
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.
It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite
direction.
-E.F. Schumacker
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
- Leonardo DaVinci?
The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the
marble block as are not needed - it is a process of elimination.
- Elbert Hubbard
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making
the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.
- Charles Mingus
The Principle of Least Surprise
1. <http://www.ilstu.edu/~asharm4/quotations.htm>
2. <http://www.vanderburg.org/Misc/Quotes/soft-quotes.html>