
"I was really excited to write this article, because it gave me an excuse to really think about what beautiful code is. I still don't think I know, and maybe it's entirely subjective. I do think the two biggest things, for me at least, are stylistic indenting and maximum const-ness. A lot of the stylistic choices are definitely my personal preferences, and I'm sure other programmers will have different opinions. I think the choice of what style to use is up to whoever has to read and write the code, but I certainly think it's something worth thinking about. I would suggest everyone look at the Doom 3 source code
because I think it exemplifies beautiful code, as a complete package: from system design down to how to tab space the characters." John Carmack himself
replies in the comments.
Member since:
2007-03-26
I hear you on that.
In the past I've written code that I've personally hated but it was correct in the context of the wider project.
That said, I have been known to completely rewrite smaller projects before, but those have been extreme circumstances (and there's usually been more wrong than just the use of blocks and braces hehe)