>Ugly code that works pays bills. Beautiful code that doesn't work is, in a very literal sense, worthless
what about good code that work? All places where I see your argument prevail, ended up to be not just 'ugly code', but unmaintainable code. And systems that cannot evolve at all.
Personally I don't call coding an art, but I've seen countless times how people people choose bad solution even though better one costs exactly the same, and in a long run - actually cheaper. And they _always_ use this argument - 'code is just a tool, if it solves the problem, it is good'. And then they either leave or have to spend weekends to write even more dirty code just to solve problem they wouldn't have in the first place if they spent a little bit more time thinking about the code.
Don’t mistake “beautiful” code for “clean” code. Clean code has value in its ease of maintenance, it’s easy to work with. “Beautiful” code falls into the completely arbitrary land of “what is beautiful?”
Wars have been fought over defining beauty, but the important thing to note is that beauty is orthogonal to function. Clean code has clear criteria and value, beautiful code does not.
what about good code that work? All places where I see your argument prevail, ended up to be not just 'ugly code', but unmaintainable code. And systems that cannot evolve at all.
Personally I don't call coding an art, but I've seen countless times how people people choose bad solution even though better one costs exactly the same, and in a long run - actually cheaper. And they _always_ use this argument - 'code is just a tool, if it solves the problem, it is good'. And then they either leave or have to spend weekends to write even more dirty code just to solve problem they wouldn't have in the first place if they spent a little bit more time thinking about the code.