Art is lovely and creative and all. But if "flying a plane to the cleveland" was "an art, not a science", the passengers might be afraid to get on the plane.
Some parts of programming need have a certain standardization. I guess I'm still feeling burnt by "creative" scientific programmers who want their entire inspiration to exist entirely in matlab unavailable to any grubby practical hands. The quote Knuth criticizes seems like a reaction to schemes of this sort and so I have a bit of sympathy.
Art is lovely and creative and all. But if "flying a plane to the cleveland" was "an art, not a science", the passengers might be afraid to get on the plane.
Some parts of programming need have a certain standardization. I guess I'm still feeling burnt by "creative" scientific programmers who want their entire inspiration to exist entirely in matlab unavailable to any grubby practical hands. The quote Knuth criticizes seems like a reaction to schemes of this sort and so I have a bit of sympathy.