outline

introduction

why is this an interesting subject? provides one aspect of the life of programmers, more about their concrete occupation than about their depiction from outside

arts&craft movement have a profound distrust for the machine: that’s a difference but a belief in “free” craftsmanship, which could echo stallman

craftsmanship/handicraft as opposed to manufacture the instinct of worksmanship + the place of the individual (but also not quite an opposition, a strange kind of contiuum)

also meritocracy! (same source as above, p.234)

The logic of this technology, accordingly, is the logic of the ma- chine process, — a logic of masses, velocities, strains and thrusts, not of personal dexterity, tact, training, and routine. In the degree in which the information that comes to hand comes encumbered with a teleological bias, a connotation of personal bent, it is imavailable or refractory imder this logic

from early handicraft, personal, polyvalent, to late handicraft, specialized, technical

1 - professed similarities

this section inquires about the possible similarities on craftsmanship and software development, taking a historical look at both categories, and concluding a sub-category which might provide a link: building and architecture.

a - overview of how software developers view their relationship to craftsmanship

• early days: hackers and myths
• compulsivity in practice: weizenbaum
• uncle bob: clean code

b - parallel throughout history

a specific time: late middle ages/renaissance, before automation happened, after the times in which craftsmanship was disregarded socially

• middle-ages, builders, architects, guilds
• renaissance: optics, computers, tacit knowledge
• re-organization of work: artificiers

c - commentaries today: architecture

• the cathedral and the bazaar
• patterns of software, patterns of space
• parallels with guilds and displacement of the hand-made (?)

2 - knowledge and value production

after having elucidated in what broad respects software development might be like craftsmanship, we highlight one specific aspect which asserts interesting tensions (both similarities and differences): knowledge acquisition and transmission

a - knowledge in traditional craft

• short-circuit
• learning by doing and observing
• apprentices/masters
• cookbooks
• practice and repetition

b - knowledge in software development

• ad hoc
• somewhat formalized, a lot self-taught
• learning by doing, not so much observing (paul graham, hackers and painters)
• • snippets of code on stack overflow?
• relationship to IP law? crafts and wares were signed, code as well. however, code can be hidden much more effectively.
• the bus factor
• the problem of documentation

c - diffuse knowledge, hobbyists and amateurs

• a cheap tool
• diffuse knowledge, resulting maybe in more hobbyism than expertise (the network society, cscw studies)
• still specific commununity online

3 - aesthetics

at the heart of knowledge transmission and acquisition stands the practice, and inherent in the practice is the good practice, the beautiful one. this section investigates the aesthetics of code within the broader context of the aesthetics of craftsmanship, highlighting how code can act as a material.

a - the aesthetics of craftsmanship

• pye
• sennett
• harold osborne

the question of style

b - the aesthetics of code

• functional beauty (also in osborne: the difference between fine arts and craftsmanship is selflessness, practical utility)
• clear, simple, elegant
• no ornament?

c - code as material

• essential complexity
• code smells, spaghetti, etc.
• the role of tools (terminal)

conclusion

there are some self-proclaimed similarities, but the most reliable/salient ones come from architecture and aesthetics, making the case for code as material.