“There is an important tradeoff between the computational power of a language and the ability to determine what a program in that language is doing.’ — W3C, Principle of Least Power”

There is an important association between complexity of functionality and readability that must considered by a programmer constantly. I seek to describe how the less complex or ‘powerful’ programming paradigms have improved both the design and the ability to read code over time.

Progression of Language Constructs Resulting in Improvements of Clarity

Spaghetti Code

In 1968, Edsger Dijkstra, acting as an advocate for easy to read, structured code, composed a letter in which he called for the complete abolition of…

“The only kind of writing is rewriting.“

- Ernest Hemingway

A first draft can always be improved. This is true for any product of careful and thought-out effort (an essay, a software project, a business logo, the architecture of an airplane, etc.). Though improvements in quality differ in size, quality is increased nonetheless. In iOS devices, a sequence of three digits separated by periods are used to define specific iOS versions. Though iOS versions may differentiate by major releases (iOS 11 vs. iOS 12) or by patches (iOS 12.1.1 vs. iOS 12.1.2), improvements in quality still occur. Both major releases…

The best code is most often produced from an elite group of individuals: from good programmers who are also good writers.

Humans have short attention spans. To keep the reader’s focus, the writer must follow a few rules.

Many of the principles skilled writers follow during the writing process directly correspond to the fundamentals skilled programmers embody during the software development process.

Straight to the Point

A skilled writer knows that each word matters. Word placement, sentence organization, paragraph flow — these all contribute towards an effective presentation of the essay’s main focus. Likewise, every block of code should have a purpose. Length of…

Intro

Redundant data may not be an issue for non-relational databases.

For relational databases, this is a pest that must be disposed of.

Data redundancy increases the difficulty of inserting, updating or deleting rows from a database consistently. Database normalization is a technique to organize data into multiple tables to eliminate data redundancy.

Systems that require specific information retrieval from a database benefit from the precision normalization provides. However, systems performing mass amounts of information retrieval may experience a decrease in access speed. The lack of data duplicity in normalized databases results in slower read times from the required use of…

I start each day with a cup of coffee.

The process is the same — I choose a mug, fill my Keurig machine with water, place a k-cup inside, and I hit the start button. I hit the start button having complete trust that I’ll have a steaming cup of joe in a few minutes, because that’s just what a Keurig machine does.

The thing is, I have no idea how my Keurig machine makes my cup of coffee. I have my speculations, of course, from working previously in a coffee shop with much larger brewers. I can speculate that…