Call for suggestions: beauty
On April 29 in the early evening at the Schaffhausen Institute of Technology I will give a talk on “The Beauty of Software”, exploring examples of what makes some concepts, algorithms, data structures etc. produce a sense of esthetics. (Full abstract below.) I gave a first version at TOOLS last year but am revising and expanding the talk extensively.
I obviously have my own examples but am interested in more. If you have some that you feel should be considered for inclusion, perhaps because you experienced a “Wow!” effect when you encountered them, please tell me. I am only asking for names or general pointers, not an in-depth analysis (that’s my job). To avoid having my thunder stolen I would prefer that you alert me by email. I will give credit for examples not previously considered.
Thanks!
Abstract of the talk as published:
Scientists often cite the search for beauty as one of their primary guiding forces. Programming and software engineering offer an inexhaustible source of astoundingly beautiful ideas, from strikingly elegant algorithms and data structures to powerful principles of methodology and language design.
Defining beauty is elusive, but true beauty imposes itself in such a way as to remove any doubt. Drawing comparisons from art, literature and other endeavours. He will show a sample of ideas from all walks of software, directly understandable to a wide audience of non-software-experts, offering practical applications in technology that we use daily, and awe-inspiring in their simplicity and elegance.
Eiffel Software
Home page at ETH
Informatics Europe
LASER summer school
Propulsion Academy
I would love to be there but it’s not practical for me. I hope you can post video or text of the lecture.