I ran by a few things when searching for techniques to make your programming beautiful. Here is what I ran by:

1. Strive to add more function by deleting code.
2. A Designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. (Saint-Exupery)
3. In software, the most beautiful code, the most beautiful functions, and the most beautiful programs are sometimes not there at all.
4. Vigorous writing is concise. Omit needless words. (Strunk and White)
5. The cheapest, fastest, and most reliable components of a computer system are those that aren’t there. (Bell)
6. Endeavor to do more and more with less and less.
7. If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter. (Pascal)
8. The Inventor’s Paradox: The more ambitious plan may have more chance of success. (Polya)
9. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it. (Perlis)
10. Less is more. (Browning)
11. Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. (Einstein)
12. Software should sometimes be seen as a soap bubble. (Perlis)
13. Seek beauty through simplicity.

That list is from a book entitled, “Beautiful Code” by Andy Oram and Greg Wilson. Sometime or other, I’ll get my hands on a copy… lol

So, I recieved my grade for my second program in Computer Science 1 today. I found out that I had a 90 at first… I immediately took a step back and said, this isn’t right… So, luckily today was President’s day and the professor had off from teaching at high school which means he had office hours all day! I decided to swing by and inquire about the details of why I recieved a 90 on my assignment… After thorough research, he figured out that I was marked off for one of the ten test cases not working (which was due to my poor implementation of the extra credit), so I proposed a question to him and here’s what it was: “Why am I getting marked off for the extra credit being wrong when the assignment is 100% right?” He agreed and pulled my grade up, yay!

On a side note, I posted the actual assignment itself here: Recursive Permuations for people to download and use as an example. I posted my assignment because I thought it would be a great template for others to see when dealing with finding recursive permutations of a string. This program really taught me alot and helped to better my programming style. While doing the assignment, I realized the importance of properly naming your variables:

Instead of:

 int i; //used for loop

Try:

int loopCounter; //used for iterating through something

Anyways, long story short, I thought this assignment was great! He assigned the third assignment on the 9th of February and I finished it tonight after redoing it 2 times already. Once I submit it and it’s graded, ill post it on my site. Stay in touch