Tonight a highly subjective question was proposed concerning "What Beautiful Code should be." There are a lot of important questions and while I understand this might be a very debatable topic, let's take some time to talk about this... Why? you might ask. Well, because it's important... Take a look at some of the following points made by our very own mouser, Gothi[c] and Deozaan:
1. It is better to have 20 lines of understandable clear simple code than 4 lines of complexity. - Mouser
2. The real question is does it make any non-negligable difference when it's all compiled down to bytecode anyway? If so, it probably needs to be evaluated for each programming language. - Deozaan
3. If it uses more memory, so what? Premature optimization is the root of all evil. Lets not optimize that until a problem is created by being too organized, which is near impossible. - CodeByter
4. Would you rather have a program use 100k extra memory or have the same program crash more often because its code is hard to understand? - mouser
5. If the program needs to read millions of pieces of data, then 1ms of delay can add up. - Deozaan
6. There's a balance between clear code and complex code with less lines. Just clarity at the cost of crazy insane slowdown would be silly. - Gothi[c]
7. Even when code is slower, you have to ask yourself, is it happening in a place that matters. There are very very few cases where it is better to have ugly short code than longer clearer code. - Mouser
8. We shouldn't strive to write longer code but rather to write code that is easy to understand. - Mouser
9. The goal should be: efficient easy to understand, short if possible, code. - Gothi[c]
In this discussion, Mouser mentions a list that I post on my site. Take a look at the list here:
http://www.codebyter.com/2009/02/beautiful-code/Now, you are completely briefed and ready to go. Post some thoughts you have concerning this highly debatable topic and keep in mind that no one is against you :)