The Shape of Code

Robert Glass is a software engineering developer, manager, researcher and author who, until six months ago, I had vaguely heard of; somehow I had missed reading any of his 25 books. After seeing citations to some of Glass’s books, I bought half-a-dozen or so, second hand. They are well written, and twenty-five years ago I would have found them very interesting; now I simply agree with the points made.

“software creativity 2.0” is Glass’s penultimate book, published in 2006, and the one that caught my attention. I would recommend his other books to anybody who is new to software engineering, or experienced people looking for an encapsulation in print of what they encounter at work.

Glass was 74 when this book was published, having started working in computing in 1954. He was there and seems to have met many of the major names in software engineering, working with some of them.

The book is a clear-eyed summary of what Glass has learned from being involved with software engineering, and watching method/tool fashions come and go. My favourite section draws parallels between software development cultures and the culture of Rome vs. Greek vs. Barbarian:

Models        Roman             Greek                Barbarians
Organization  Organize people   Organize things      Barely
Focus         Manages projects  Writes programs      Leap to coding
Motivation    Group goals       Problem to be solved Heroics
Working style Organizations     Small groups         Solo
Politics      Imperial          Democratic           Anarchist
Tool use      People are tools  Things are tools     Avoid tools
Status        Function-ocracy   Meritocracy          Fear-ocracy
Activities    Plan things       Do things            Break things
Emphasize     Form              Substance            Line of code

The contents are essentially a collection of short essays, organized under the 19 chapter headings below, which in turn are grouped into four parts. The first nine chapters (part I, and 60% of pages) contain the experience based material, with the subsequent parts/pages having a creativity theme. A thread running through the discussion is idealism/practice:

    Discipline vs. Flexibility
    Formal methods versus Heuristics
    Optimizing versus Satisficing
    Quantitative versus Qualitative Reasoning
    Process versus Product
    Intellect vs. Clerical Tasks
    Theory vs. Practice
    Industry vs. Academe
    Fun versus Getting Serious
 
    Creativity in the Software Organization
    Creativity in Software Technology
    Creative Milestones in Software History
 
    Organizational Creativity
    The Creative Person
    Computer Support for Creativity
    Creativity Paradoxes#'twas Always Thus
 
    A Synergistic Conclusion
    Other Conclusions

This book deserves to be widely read. I found it best to read a single section per sitting.