the whole text tries to make a connection between programmer and artist, forgetting that they’re both artesans (craftspeople)
i need to highlight the difference between programmers and artists in order to validate the craftsmanship hypothesis above
question of the work of programming as the work of an artist
ugly code is first expressed in the context of students (poorly indented, not documented, inappropriate data structures, inappropriate variable names, etc.)
what knuth means when he says programming is art is that it is the mastery of complexity through consistency (and hopefully conciseness)
having multiple choices when working on a non-trivial program implies that we have to make use of imagination and creativity
programming is communication, with the computer, and with other people
aesthetics also help the writer to understand what they are trying to communicate (cf. computer as a prosthetic organ for philosophy)
the biggest difference between art and programming is the criterion of usefulness
the other criterion presented do not give normative prescriptions (e.g. how many indentations, etc.)