Re: Elegant code Was: Re: what kind of non microconroller app are

Jonah Thomas wrote:
....
> People say it works for Chuck Moore. He writes lots of routines that are
> a line or two each. Simple, clear, powerful. It does 90% of what you'd
> want it to, and the other 10% isn't needed. If it's true that 10% of the
> specs generate 90% of the complexity and that 10% isn't really
> needed.... People say Chuck is the best at using Forth. I'd like to be
> better at it than I am. What does Chuck do that I don't do? What do I do
> that I shouldn't?
>...

Understanding that your percentages here are entirely rhetorical, I 
think you're on the right track.  The big difference between Chuck and a 
lot of folks here is that he only solves the particular problem at hand 
-- he is never groping for a general solution.  He would never say, "I 
need a better string handling package."  Instead, confronted with a 
particular string challenge, he'd find the most direct way of dealing 
with it.  If he is working on an application full of strings, he'd find 
ways to deal with its specific issues, and factor some of the common 
needs into reusable definitions, but he would never be searching for 
either "general purpose" functions or attempting to replicate what some 
other language did.

Whether this is good or bad, I can't say... but if you ask "What does 
Chuck do that I don't do?" that's the answer.

Cheers,
Elizabeth

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