Artistic Simplicity

In an earlier post I pointed to some general principles you should abide by when developing software. Two of these, parsimony and perspicuity, could use a bit of further elaboration. Together they delineate the promotion of a simpler approach to design. Why is simpler better?

As the saying goes, "there's more than one way to skin a cat." Relax it's just a saying, I have nothing against cats. The point however is that given any coding challenge there's usually an algorithmic technical nifty way to get it done, and a more lengthy but more easily understood mechanical way around the problem. The technically elegant way will execute faster and may allow for some future bells and whistles that can be accomplished with just a couple of extensions. The more transparent, simpler to understand, lengthy code will take longer to execute and will require more lines of code when it eventually becomes time for a new feature.

But frankly the longer code is easier for a novice to understand. And in the modern corporate world of high employee turnover, constant technological change, and shifting management fads, the longer code -- because it can be maintained by newcomers -- realistically has a greater probability of staying in use.

Simplicity begets Longevity.