Antoine de Saint-Exupéry coined a famous quote about design, and anything really:
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
This often rolls through my head when writing computer code. I start off by bashing in the first thing that comes into my head to see if it works. Then I start the process of both simplication and generalisation.
Generalisation might mean adding more parameters to functions to allow them to be re-used in different places. Simplication might be scrutinising the logic to reduce it down. Or maybe refactoring the code into smaller functions.
Computer code is my creativity. Problem solving, but in a pleasing way. I have no time pressures, or client to please. So I’ll happily spend six hours on an obscure piece of code.
Deleting and retyping is how the code evolves until it finally does it thing. Unlike the artist canvas though, every change can be reversed and redone through the magic of git, the version control tool that all developers both love and hate.
When revisiting a project after a while, I’ll often find dangling git branches with some version that never got taken forward and is long forgotten now. Those get deleted also.
I don’t think though that I have a single project where there isn’t something that couldn’t be taken away.
Perfection remains elusive.
This post is for the October 2024 Artocalypse Blog Carnival hosted by Aspen.
Check out her post and write about your deletion journey. I look forward to reading your entry!