HN Explorer

Ask HN: What Are the Masterworks of Software?

13 points by graderjs ↗ HN
https://twitter.com/adamthesherwood/status/1401308468263325698:

A fundamental component of classical art training was copying works by masters.

What are the masterworks of software engineering?

9 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 32.9 ms ] thread
beaconstudios
The metaphor doesn't translate because programming is not an art.

The closest equivalent, I would say, would be learning the simple elegance of algorithms and data structures like quicksort or the linked list.

arthuryuan15
Do you think it's too easy, like basic things?
beaconstudios
If you wanted to go to the other extreme I'd say something like dwarf fortress or the Linux project, the cathedrals of software engineering.
RapperWhoMadeIt
Without a doubt some of the oldest programs that can be found in the Unix ecosystem, e.g. grep, rsync, wc, tr and so many more. If you have ever done some shell scripting, you know how valuable and well conceived this programs are. So I think that they being used so often by such an enormous and heterogeneous user base so many years after they were originally conceived, says a lot about how influential they are.

The nice thing about them is that they are open source so you can have a look at how they have been implemented and probably step up your C and systems programming game a lot.