The Art in Computer Programming（在计算机程序设计艺术）.pdf

The Art in Computer Programming Andrew Hunt David Thomas The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC September, 2001 ˚ The following is an adaptation of material originally pr esented in Aarhus, Den- 1 Writer’s Block mark, at the Java and Object Oriented Conference, on September 12, 2001. Writers face the blank page, painters face the empty can- What exactly is software development, and why is it so vas, and programmers face the empty editor buffer. Per- hard? This is a question that continues to engage our haps it’s not literally empty—an IDE may want us to thoughts. Is software development an engineering disci- specify a few things first. Here we haven’t even started pline? Is it art? Is it more like a craft? the project yet, and already we’re forced to answer many questions: what will this thing be named, what directory We think that it is all of these things, and none of them. will it be in, what type of module is it, how should it be Software is a uniquely human endeavor, because despite compiled, and so on. all of the technological trimmings, we’re manipulating lit- The completely empty editor buffer is even worse. Here tle more than the thoughts in our heads. That’s pretty we have an infinite number of choices of text with which ephemer