HACKER Q&A
📣 bccdee

What does artisanal software look like?


I like writing software. That's why I'm a software developer. To the extent that I do it professionally, I do it with professionalism, but that's not much of an outlet for creativity. I want to write fun side projects and share them with other people who will enjoy them as well.

The problem is that software development is more craft than art.

See if this sounds familiar: I'll build a new blog with an interesting architecture and a suite of fun features only to post there once & abandon it. I set out to make a game, I have fun building the engine, and then I run out of steam, because I didn't actually want to design gameplay or levels or anything. I just wanted to code.

I enjoy writing tools, but tools are meant to be used as needed, and every necessary or useful tool that can be built by one person already has been. What's the point of writing another static site generator? Nobody else will use it—if they want to publish something on the internet, they've got plenty of excellent options already. And I sure won't use it because I don't actually have anything to publish. If I were a professional writer or graphic designer, I could satisfy myself writing a short story or painting a painting. You can make art in the medium of writing or drawing. What can we do with the medium of software?

When a baker bakes an artisanal loaf of bread, they get to exercise their creativity and make something that people will actually enjoy. I guess you could define art that way—something that's a joy to make and a joy to consume. I want that for software. I want to write something in a weekend with rough edges and endearing quirks, instead of a fully-featured, performant, bug-free piece of production software with a maintenance roadmap and a business plan. And I want it to be something that other people can get something out of. Is there a space for this anywhere? Is this a niche that exists? Surely I'm not the only one who feels this way. What are some examples of software art?

  👤 valdiorn Accepted Answer ✓
A lot of people here confusing using artistry with the making of art.

When a baker bakes "artisanal bread" (whatever that is), the end result isn't art - it's good bread.

Same way, if there's any such thing as artisanal programming, the end result should be "art" (demoscene, 2d/3d visuals or audio) - it's good software

👤 jacquesm
Check out the demo scene, they are still going strong after 4 decades and producing stuff that is just as mindblowing as it was when it all began.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imquk_3oFf4

That's 256 bytes.

👤 kosasbest
> The problem is that software development is more craft than art

I regularly swing between the two distinct disciplines of art and programming.

With art, you can make mistakes in a painting, and people barely notice. You notice if you're a perfectionist, but generally, unless they're serious art critics, people don't care that you used black instead of navy for a shadow.

Programming is different. A single rogue missing comma and the whole program fails. There is no room for mistakes.

On the other hand, you can incorporate art into programming if that's your thing. This is why I love the demoscene.

👤 WhiteBlueSkies
The quality that you want to bring to programming is basically handmade special purpose programs. Game dev comes to mind. Flappy bird was unique as was the very first version of Minecraft. There are no guarantees that people will play the game that you build though. As per Apps most are Web Apps and they all look roughly the same and I don't think that there's much creativity there. Diving into modern web development will sure as hell siphon your joy out of programming though.
👤 sargstuff
Perhaps thing outside the tool/app along lines of default app/program values? aka utilize different 'software' abstraction levels to acomplish something is one definition of 'software art'

X11 configuration files to make xwindows resemble a PC os ( https://zorin.com/os/ )

.login / .logout or dot file to customize how use/interact with ?? shell, xwindows, program(s)

does using unicode / ascii character set to 'redo' graphic format count as software art?

Is abusing a programming language to do something language was not setup/intended to do count as software art? ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Obfuscated_C_Cod... )

Does writting a working OS in piet count as 'software art' ( https://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/piet.html )

Getting multiple programs on the voyager 1 & 2 space craft to run in few k of available memory count at 'software art'? or is the ability to remotely debug/trouble shoot from millions of miles away a 'software art'?

Is literate programming a 'software art'? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming

👤 lproven
I'd say it looks like nothing so much as Project Oberon:

http://www.projectoberon.com/

This is a good quick overview: http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2009/04/22/oberon/

This is a deeper dive: https://people.cs.ksu.edu/~danielwang/Investigation/System_S...

This is Wirth's "Plea for Lean Software" (re-laid out on my own blog) https://liam-on-linux.dreamwidth.org/88032.html

👤 h2odragon
Game mods.

Don't have to have a point, just has to amuse you. But you can share it and hope to amuse others, too.

Even some of the games that are easy to mod and provide documentation and everything can be adventures in brain twisting coding. The simplest things can require the most arcane tricks, in service of something like making pink unicorns appear on the battlefield and shoot lasers at your enemies once they've killed you.