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From: duncan@ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Creativity in Computing (Was Re: Art vs. Engineering)
Message-ID: <1991May14.125356.6675@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Date: 14 May 91 12:53:56 GMT
References: <1991May9.124559.2924@ssd.kodak.com> <4315@meaddata.meaddata.com> <2382@ccadfa.adfa.oz.au>
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Reply-To: duncan@ctt.bellcore.com (Scott Duncan)
Organization: Computer Technology Transfer, Bellcore
Lines: 68

In article <2382@ccadfa.adfa.oz.au> ghm@ccadfa.adfa.oz.au (Geoff Miller) writes:
>
>                                                                Programming
>is essentially creative  -  look at the enthusiasm which some of the best
>programmers put into their work, and you will see exactly the same 
>concentration and demand for perfection as you see in the work of any other
>artist.

While I'd agree that "enthusiasm," "concentration," and "demand for perfection"
may all be necessary for something to be called "creative" in some sense.  One
can possess these characteristics, probably, and not be "creative" in the sense
of "original."  And one can be "original" without, say, "demand for perfection"
as an example.

>         Sure, there are a lot of hack programmers who just worry about
>producing so many lines of code per day, but just an an author can agonise
>for hours over finding just the right word so a real programmer will put a
>lot of effort into every line of a program.

I'm not sure this qualifies as "creativity" as much as dedication to doing the
job well, i.e., with high quality and concern for the client/user.

>                                                         the creativity is
>applied within a tight discipline  -  perhaps a better comparison would be 
>with poetry, where the chosen form of the poem provides tight constraints.

I think you have an important element here:  working within constraints or a
discipline (or at least knowing full well when the constraints are violated).
This seems to be high on many people's list of things that confer a sense of
engineering rigor on software development.  Interestingly you correlate it
with creativity which, I think, reveals what many hope an engineering approach
to software can achieve:  allow for creativity to coexist with some aspect of
standards, discipline, and constraints.

>Many people can write passable verse, few can write poetry.

You are not paralleling the writing of "passable verse," I hope, with "hack
programmers."  Since you compare both to folks whom you offer as examples of
"creative" people -- "real programmers" and the "few" who "can write poetry,"
I'd be concerned.

The writing of verse and the writing of software certainly have different
implications for the impact of how well the job is done.  Poorly done verse
is not likely to have the same effect as poorly done software.  One may com-
pare the process of creation, but the consequences of the latter seem far more
serious.

>Geoff Miller  (ghm@cc.adfa.oz.au)
>Computer Centre, Australian Defence Force Academy

Some time ago, I posted a note related to creativity where I suggested that
it had long been associated with implementation (algorithmic) concerns rather
than application (design) ones.  I did not hear from anyone at that time on
this point.  However, given Geoff's post, perhaps the comment bears repeating.

Do folks think that "creativity" in software is still very much focused on
the implementation of algorithms rather than the solution of an application
problem?  In some sense, even the excitement over object-oriented approaches
seems to get back to the creation of methods and classes and components.  It
seems to be left to the methodologists to discuss how this technology can be
applied to solving real-world problems.  And "methods" (one element of the
"discipline" Geoff mentions) have not always been popular with "real program-
mers."

Speaking only for myself, of course, I am...
Scott P. Duncan (duncan@ctt.bellcore.com OR ...!bellcore!ctt!duncan)
                (Bellcore, 444 Hoes Lane  RRC 1H-210, Piscataway, NJ  08854)
                (908-699-3910 (w)   609-737-2945 (h))