written by xqtr of another droid bbs # andr01d.舷舷zapto.org:9999

We live in a time, that everything is about, looks... and what's in the
surface of things. Everyone seeks and approves what is beautiful and
nice, but no one cares for what's under the "surface". With this general
idea, lets talk about a group of people, that everything they do, it's
under the surface ;) The programmers...

[snip from: https://medium.com/@ChallengeRocket/
your-programmers-are-artists-and-you-should-treat-them-as-such-ae047727d523]
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The fact that programmers don't come to work with paintbrushes in their
pockets doesn't mean these people aren't the creative types, quite the
opposite. Writing code is a form of art, and every application, every piece
of software is a painting, a song, a poem. Developers don't just mindlessly
slap their keyboards and out comes a string of text that can be compiled and
run on some hardware. See, the subject is more delicate, and the reason QA
department is seen as an enemy by your .NET department originates from devs
perception of their software as works of art, masterpieces in some cases.
Writing code is, simply put, creating, making something from nothing,
carefully balancing elements together, putting ideas into action, and this is
no different than composing music, painting portraits, or writing poems.
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Programming is an ART! A different art! An art that you can't see
by first look and you have to look deep inside the code to find the magic
of it. You may see an ugly UI, but under it there is knowledge, effort,
creativity, cleverness and more. A program its never what it looks, but
what it does and how it does it.

In a piece of (ANSI) Art, you may see some techniques that they can even
distinguish the creator, on who he is and how much of a bit talent he
is... but in a program, you can't see that. You'll have to look into the
source code and even then, if you don't have the knowledge you wont
understand the creativity of that person. You can recognize a programmer,
by the way he writes his code and how he is using stuff. A "Inc(a,1)" is
different than a "a:=a+1" or a "a+=1" and it may seem a small detail, but
it can also tell if someone is a "master" or just lazy... :) If you ever
do some reverse engineering in software, especially in encryption stuff,
breaking codes etc. you can truly admire the knowledge of these guys.

Specially in the old days, with systems like C64, Atari ST, Amiga, older
systems with processors in 2 to 6 MHz and RAM of about 10 to 256Kb,
programmers were true "gods"! They manage to make programs, with use of
such a small amount of RAM and even push the machine to its limits and
even more. All that needed a lot of effort and true knowledge of the
machine. Even today in more advanced machines, where programmers can
freely use any amount of RAM, speed etc they want, a programmer needs to
know things... Know about the machine, the programming language, how to
use compilers, tips and tricks in programming, maths and even logic.
Even today, you can see that this "old art" of pushing machines to their
limits, in DEMOS and ASSEMBLY contests, where in just a little time and
with a few KBs, men are making art.

An artist, for sure he can go to a school and learn a lot of stuff, but
from the beginning some people, just have inside them. You see kids/guys
that from an early age, they take a pen and create masterpieces. In
programming you can't do that, without opening a book first!

So its a pity when, for example in a game, or a program, all the credits
go to the artists and not the programmers. Only a few will recognize the
"art of programming" but a lot of people will criticize a program and its
programmer for various and small things. A program is a tool! You can't
admire any tool for its beauty and looks of it, but only for its
usefulness, how easy can be used and how clever does what it does.

Even in the BBS/ANSI scene you see the same thing, its no exception.
Whenever a new ansi pack is released, you read the hype and the
anticipation for it, before even being published. But when a
group/programmer releases a program, you will read a "Thanx", here and
there and after that, criticism, that "it doesn't do this", "it doesn't
do this", "it crashed there", "this should be fixed" etc. And in some
point, this is understandable, cause as i said, a program is first a tool
and tools always need, feedback and suggestions, rethinking, redesign
etc. But it would be nice for the creator to also hear good words for his
work.

The same thing, happens also to other professions, that are more
practical, like machine engineers, machinists, builders, wood workers etc. 
Because their profession is first "Work" and "Usefulness" and after a form
of art. An art for only the few that can recognize it and acknowledge it.
So, do give credits and respect, to those that build and create things
from nothing. Not only to those that are making it beautiful. Recognize
things from what they do and offer and not only from the looks of them.
After all, even God is a programmer... that's why he is using math all
over the universe and nature. ;)