Step 5: Beauty Is in Simplicity ~ Jorn Olmheim
This is the fifth step towards gaining the Programming Enlightenment series. If you didn’t learn the fourth step, read it.
“That’s been one of my mantras- focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains” ~ Steve Jobs
As the saying goes “ There is beauty in simplicity and simplicity is the complex”. In striving to handle complexity we try to achieve the simplicity and while trying the simple things we tend to over complex stuff.
Why we need beautiful code?
As developer we tend to strive simplicity in our code by:
- Readability.
- Maintainability.
- Speed of development.
- The Elusive quality of beauty.
How to achieve beautiful code?
Beautiful code is a subjective perception. It depends upon developers, but it’s goal is the same.
- Spend time studying open source code. They have been written by seasoned developers, who have made the code beautiful.
- Each part of the code should be kept simple with simple responsibilities and simple relationships with other parts of the system.
- Learn Clean Code.
TL;DR Spend time thinking about code. Number of lines don’t dictate how simple the problem is or complex. A code that is clean is beautiful.
Go to fourth step.
Go to the next path (Coming soon).
References:
- 97 things Every Programmer Should Know ~ Git Book
- 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know ~ Paperback
- How many lines of code programmer writes in a day ~ Quora
- Learn Clean Code ~ Blog
- Clean Code Series ~ Medium blog