Summary
Is programing an art, science, or engineering? Paul Graham thinks art, and I mostly agree.

Today slashdot had a link to an interesting article by Paul Graham on how programing is more similar to the arts than engineering.

I think I agree with most of what he is saying. There are a few items I quibble with. In particular I find the structure provided by some degree of static typing helpful (Java good, Pascal not so much). I also find working out complex program wide aspects, like syncronization, on paper before hand helpful. This is probably because programing has more in common with engineering (we are building machines after all) than any of the other arts.

Resources

Paul Graham's Article
http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html

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About the Blogger

John McClain is a member of Sun's Jini Network Technology development team. His current responsibilities include technical lead of the Outrigger development team and ownership of the JavaSpaces Service Specification. Prior to joining Sun, John worked at Lockheed Martin on distributed simulation and at DEC on network printers.