[SIGCIS-Members] Origins of "clean" code
Azhar Desai
mail at azh-r.com
Mon Sep 6 12:57:43 PDT 2021
Thanks so much everyone - this was discussion was incredibly helpful.
I did not expect so much behind my "little" question!
Now, I've got plenty to get on with: trying Tom's approach,
digging into Rachel's book chapter and getting a copy of Kim's
Software–A Technical History when it lands.
Best,
Az
On Mon, 6 Sep 2021, at 08:14, Pierre Mounier-Kuhn wrote:
> A little obvious side-remark: "Clean" refers to the engineering side of
> computing – including programming. A mathematician's demonstration can
> be "beautiful" or "elegant" (or not), while an engine or a factory
> floor can be either clean or soiled with metal flakes and grease…
> Regards,
> Pierre Mounier-Kuhn
>
> CNRS, Sorbonne Université & CentraleSupélec
> https://cnrs.academia.edu/PierreMounierKuhn
> http://laboutique.edpsciences.fr/produit/846/9782759818198/Histoire%20illustree%20de%20linformatique
> http://www.rdv-histoire.com/mounier-kuhn-pierre-eric
>
>
> ----- Mail original -----
> De: "Brian E Carpenter" <brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com>
> À: "members" <members at lists.sigcis.org>
> Envoyé: Lundi 6 Septembre 2021 07:50:40
> Objet: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Origins of "clean" code
>
> Janet,
>
> I think that "garbage collection" is so literally accurate that it
> isn't a metaphor. Or at least, if it's a metaphor, so are "word" and
> "program".
>
> "Clean" seems to me very comparable with "beautiful" as used by
> theoretical physicists and mathematicians of the most elegant theories.
> (For example, nobody as far as I know thinks that the proofs of
> Fermat's Last Theorem or the Four Colour theorem are beautiful.)
> Definitely in the class of "I know it when I see it."
>
> Dijkstra, by the way, in his famous "Go To Statement Considered
> Harmful" letter doesn't seem to use the word clean, but he does say
> that Go To is "an invitation to make a mess of one's program."
>
> Regards
> Brian Carpenter
>
> On 05-Sep-21 10:50, Janet Abbate wrote:
> > And let’s not forget “garbage collection”
> >
> > Dr. Janet Abbate
> > Professor, Science, Technology and Society
> > Virginia Tech
> > Co-director, VT National Capital Region STS program
> > liberalarts.vt.edu/sts
> > www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS
> > https://sites.google.com/vt.edu/stsconnect/
> >
> >> On Sep 4, 2021, at 8:53 AM, Rachel Plotnick <rachelplotnick2012 at u.northwestern.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> I've been working on the question of cleanliness in computing for
> the past couple of years - and am now contextualizing it in a larger
> project on cleanliness and media technologies. I don't have a specific
> answer on the origin of "clean code," but my initial thought is that it
> fits into a
> much broader discourse about the ways that we talk about things being
> "clean" or "dirty" as a metaphor or skeuomorph in so many technological
> contexts. In the running list I've been keeping specifically for
> computing, I've documented:
> >>
> >> Clean install
> >> Clean design
> >> Clean copy
> >> Clean room (physical and coding)
> >> Clean code
> >> Clean images
> >> Clean interface
> >> Clean the registry
> >> Disk Clean Up
> >> Dirty data
> >> Dirty PC (not vetted to be virus-free)
> >> Dirty download/dirty files
> >> Digital janitors
> >> Trash and recycling bin icons
> >> Computer virus
> >> Clean desktop/clutter
> >> Zero inbox
> >>
> >> And there are likely many more examples. I'm also looking at how
> questions of physical cleaning - of monitors, mouse, keyboard, desk,
> hard drive, disks - also take on great importance in computing. Some of
> my recent interest has been in the ways that clean room language came
> into conflict
> with computer rooms and then multi-purpose offices by challenging what
> human-machine hygiene meant. I've published a chapter in an edited
> volume, Computer Architectures, that provides some preliminary
> thoughts:
> https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429264306-7/unclean-human-machine-interface-rachel-plotnick
> >>
> >> This is a great question and I'm always happy to talk more about it and hear others' thoughts!
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Rachel Plotnick
> >> Assistant Professor, Cinema and Media Studies
> >> Indiana University Bloomington
> >> raplotni at iu.edu
> >>
> >> On Sat, Sep 4, 2021 at 12:16 AM Ben Peters <bjpeters at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> The excellent media historian Rachel Plotnick has done at least a talk
> touching on “clean”:
> >>
> >> https://www.blog.shanedenson.com/?p=5027
> >>
> >> No doubt there are other resources as well,
> >>
> >> Ben
> >>
> >> Benjaminpeters.org
> >>
> >> Sent from my iPhone
> >>
> >>> On Sep 3, 2021, at 19:24, MikeWillegal <mike at willegal.net> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> I would suggest you review the many meanings of clean in a dictionary. Among them included in Merriam-Webster.com are …
> >>>
> >>> 1 b. free from contamination or disease
> >>> 6 a. relatively free from error or blemish
> >>> 7 a. characterized by clarity and precision
> >>>
> >>> So I would suggest that regardless of the origin of usage of the
> word
> clean in computer science, this adjective is, in fact, quite useful and
> appropriate. Of course, there are probably more cases than not where
> it could be argued whether a particular piece of code is clean or not.
> If there is a disagreement between observers, the substitution of a
> different adjective is not likely to change anybody’s opinion.
> >>>
> >>> regards,
> >>> Mike Willegal
> >>>
> >>>> On Sep 3, 2021, at 3:19 PM, Azhar Desai <mail at azh-r.com> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Hi SIGCIS,
> >>>>
> >>>> I'm a software engineer, who reads & relies some of your work, to help make sense of working in the astonishingly ahistorical tech sector - so thank you!
> >>>>
> >>>> I'm interested in the origins of the word "clean" in software design. In conversations about software, people might often prefer some code over another, arguing that it's "cleaner". An example from a 2020 paper on the implementation of a VPN in Linux:
> >>>>
> >>>>> While the Linux kernel’s crypto API has a large collection of primitives... ultimately, using raw primitives with direct, non-abstracted APIs proved to be far cleaner [1]
> >>>>
> >>>> The most famous example is the eponymously titled book "Clean Code" (2008) which proposes snippets of code that are ostensibly always preferred.
> >>>>
> >>>> Does anyone know where I might find out how the word "clean" came
> to
> be used like this in software? My reasons for asking are somewhat
> impure:
> I'm trying to discourage this not very meaningful word in favour of
> more precise language.
> >>>>
> >>>> One of the earliest uses I've seen of "clean" is in one of Djikstra's notes from 1974 [2] on a design for arrays in response to how ALGOL 60 had it. [2] But I have no idea if it was in common use then, or had always been in the development of programming languages at least. I'd love to hear any thoughts.
> >>>>
> >>>> Best,
> >>>> Az
> >>>>
> >>>> [1] https://www.wireguard.com/papers/wireguard.pdf
> >>>> [2] https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/ewd04xx/EWD417.PDF
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> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Rachel Plotnick, PhD
> >> Media, Technology and Society Program
> >> Northwestern University
> >> _______________________________________________
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