Last week I was studying outside of a lecture hall where someone was teaching an introductory course on computer programming. There was a lot that I overheard that I disagreed with; this essay is an attempt to help me crystallize what exactly I disagreed with. What is programming? What is good programming? What should programming be like? How you answer depends a lot on what you value. What I value in programming has not always been the same, and I think I’m the better for having toured aro...
