I had a random thought yesterday about programming in general. It's rare. But it happens. I realized a correlation between code frameworks that "feel right" and books that I enjoy reading. All stories have characters. Stories that I usually like the most are those that have a modest number of interoperating characters. Some novels have a huge number of characters (or maybe terms); War and Peace comes to mind. The Otherland series (gag) by Tad Williams. The Master and Commmander series (not so much characters, but terms and concepts). All of these were difficult to read. I actually like the 1st and 3rd. But it didn't mean they weren't work to read through. They remind me of object frameworks with lots of different object types. There may be value in them. But its hard to keep track of the story. It just exceeds the human mind's capacity to hold a comfortable number of variables in the mind.

Then there's the novel which revolves around pretty much character. Usually shallow. Clancy novels at the peak of Jack WhatsHisName's career. Battlefield Earth by Hubbard. One character does it all. And you interface with everyone through that one character. These are like those "main()" programs we all complain about. One function. The main function. That's it. Or the Main object. They just dont feel as rich and robust as the multi character counterparts.

Then there's the well written story that revolves around a couple main characters, each contributing a valuable part. Shakespeare for me. And many others.

These are of course grand generalizations, but it was kind of fun to think about the parallels, between what I consider enganging literature and engaging code.