All Code is Crap

I use the following catch phrase with ever increasing frequency: "All code is crap".  

Its been a long time since any new software code artifact or application, seen from the inside or out, has impressed me as flawless and impeccable.     As a yardstick, I'll compare a piece of software to my stupid half-blind cat Odin (RIP) with a brain the size of a walnut; the one that got confused when water would not behave like a solid.     The software always comes up short.   All code is crap.

I am a liberal minded code monkey.    My "ideal" system design idiom that I wish my work would allow me to pursue: write the platform DSL using conservative methods (strongly typed etc), and build the applications on top of that using a combination of declarative modeling and scripted language tools.... but then I think about the cat again and realize its all so much junk.

With Odin's error handling, fault tolerance, and ability to adapt and learn, he puts to shame almost any or all software that I am familiar with.   Just watching him try to puzzle out what running water was and fail was fascinating.

On the other hand the Google search box is always amazing.    Even with Alexa and Tesla self driving cars emerging, so far the Search Box is the most amazing user interface of the last thirty years:  one text box.   

That and a world wide web built onto a sea of broken hyperlinks.    The infamous GOTO (link) showed its true worth!   Most adopted software idiom.

This article was actually written years ago.   I apologize for putting it out there during the Floyd protests and Covid-19 epidemic.   Just getting it out there while its in front of me.    This article is off topic but where I am somewhat knowledgeable.    I'll leave broadcasting our action items to resolve the racial and economic divides and dealing with the pandemic to more qualified voices.