kzucker
12-02-2004, 06:03 PM
http://www.websphere.org/blog/archives/000076.html
One of my favorite terms from my old mathematics days was "elegant," usually used to describe a proof. This makes sense for software as well, and so I set out with my favorite web search tool for a suitable definition in the sense I meant.
This is what Webster's Online Dictionary says, in part:
Elegance- Combining simplicity, power, and a certain ineffable grace of design.
Is this one of the reasons why SOA and web services seem so appealing, at least potentially? The same Webster's link notes that Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery said that "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Power is easier to achieve than simplicity, and I tend to think that some people can create things of "ineffable grace" better than others. Let's first focus on simplicity.
-Robert S. Sutor, 16 Nov 2004
One of my favorite terms from my old mathematics days was "elegant," usually used to describe a proof. This makes sense for software as well, and so I set out with my favorite web search tool for a suitable definition in the sense I meant.
This is what Webster's Online Dictionary says, in part:
Elegance- Combining simplicity, power, and a certain ineffable grace of design.
Is this one of the reasons why SOA and web services seem so appealing, at least potentially? The same Webster's link notes that Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery said that "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Power is easier to achieve than simplicity, and I tend to think that some people can create things of "ineffable grace" better than others. Let's first focus on simplicity.
-Robert S. Sutor, 16 Nov 2004