The difference between a good programmer and a poor programmer is the clarity of the code he or she writes. Now isn’t it not a false assertion that although a sentence may be not written clearly is effectively (once comprehended) entirely and fully and wholly equivalent to a simplified sentence with a not dissimilar meaning? What I’m trying to say is that sentences which have the same meaning are not equivalent. I wrote that long terrible sentence as a demonstration. As I was writing it, I was able to make sure that it had the meaning I desired; however, now, my mind can’t parse the meaning of the sentence without reading it multiple times. I can’t count the number of times I have been confused while rereading my own code (though it must have made sense to me at one point.) Writing English is similar to writing code: sentences have structure, and good sentences have a clear purpose. I become a better programmer as I become a better writer because both skills rely on the ability to clearly express a concept.

To be free software, or not to be; that is the question

Whether ‘tis nobler in the code to suffer

The slings and arrows of newbie programmers,

Or to grunt and sweat under a proprietary codebase,

Any by opposing them? To profit: to code; no more

But that the dread of some bug after release,

The undiscover’d flaw from whose outrage

No customer returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than rely on others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sickled o’er with the pale cast of thought,

And code enterprises of great in-house developed pith

With this regard their old code turn awry,

And lose the name of action. –Soft you now!

The fair Stallman! Nymph, in thy foundations

Be all my code remember’d