[RubyConf 2007] Marcel Molina: “What Makes Code Beautiful?”

Great first talk from Marcel Molina. The net:

There are 3 components to beauty:

• proportion (relative size of parts),
• integrity (does it suit its purpose?), and
• clarity (is it simple/clear?).

Apply these principles to software. Good software = beautiful software. Code built to accomplish the task should be proportional to the size of the task. It should be concise while being readable.

Fortunately…

Ruby is optimized for beauty.

• Try to imagine better modes of expression.
• Violations of beauty rules reveal mistakes.
• Do that enough and you will innovate.

Highlights:

• 9:54 Marcel slide-bombs the conference with a pic of someone afflicted with hand gigantism. On-topic, interestingly.
• 10:15 In response to a question from the audience: “Please reiterate. I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Stylistic note: Marcel indents all private methods one additional level to offset them from the rest of the file. Interesting.