TRY IT OUT -> Zennish <- TRY IT OUT
A programming puzzle inspired by a programming career.
Professional programming involves balance between the opposing philosophies of architecture (GRASP, SOLID) and pragmatism (KISS, YAGNI). Over-architected code front-loads difficulty to solve problems that won’t necessarily ever come. Under-architected code causes exponentially more pain with each new requirement, like a house on a bad foundation. Finding the middle ground consistently, our job, is hard.
But in the real world the changes you have to make over your code are so spaced out and forgotten. Thus the feedback loop on your coding decisions may be months or years. Welcome to the garden of practice. When you make choices in this low-stakes sandbox it’ll only take minutes to reap what you have sewn.
I also see this an alternative to traditional coding challenges (e.g. codility, google code jam) that challenges the traditional valuation of engineers on academic math-intensive skills. Expert engineering is not about plugging a sequence of numbers into the OEIS; it’s creative composition.