When I'm working on a problem I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

~ R. Buckminster Fuller

If you know what you're doing, three layers is enough; if you don't, even seventeen levels won't help

~ Michael Padlipsky, The Elements of Networking Style

The most horrible invention in the last 20 years

"Here is what I think: The web was probably the most horrible invention in the last 20 years. Just exactly the wrong thing to do.

Now, it happened by accident, and it evolved, and I think that's very interesting. But if you take about 5 steps back and look at this thing we call web and you realize "we're jumping through 85 hoops a day just to get anything done".

How many languages do you have to know to get a freaking a website up?"

-- Bob Martin @ Pragmatic Podcast 29

Is renaming worth the effort?

"Is renaming worth the effort? Absolutely. Good code should communicate what it is doing clearly, and variable names are a key to clear code. Never be afraid to change the names of thing to improve clarity. (...)

Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.

Code that communicates its purpose is very important. I often refactor just when I'm reading some code. That way as I gain understanding about the program, I embed that understanding into the code for later so I don't forget what I learned."

-- Martin Fowler in Refactoring