Slow Food, Slow Code

Slow food is a movement (and registered name) that celebrates hospitality, long slow meals, the preservation of culinary heritage, and rest (after a long meal.) The movement organizes “conviti”, an old Renaissance term of a symposium of ideas while eating (and drinking.)
What about “Slow Code”? Isn’t it time to celebrate the slow appreciation of coding? Rather than be extreme about coding, I think we should slow the pace of programming, slow the pace of new releases, and slow down our computers.
As Willard McCarty has pointed out, you learn so much more when you take your time marking up a text. The encoding journey is its own reward. Why not take longer, learn more, and have a glass of Barolo while you are at it.
Read on for the Slow Code manifesto.

Slow Code Manifesto
This is only the first version, the rest will come … slowly
1. Write code for pleasure.
1.2 True pleasure is shared, so code with others.
1.3 Whenever you do something with others make it a party.
1.4 Make it a party by treating everyone with a feast for the senses. Decorate the space where you gather, bring good food, and handle the tools with care.
1.5 A party is when you gather to be who wish you were. It is when you practice grace. Good code will follow.

2. Take time to code slowly.
2.1 The wandering is the goal, not the features.
2.2 Never finish a program you enjoy fiddling with.
2.3 Never code with only people who know what you know, that will speed things up.
2.4 If you haven’t taught and learned while coding you are not taking time.
2.5 Welcome those who know nothing to your party, especially if they are sceptical.

3. A bug is not a parasite, but an occaision to digress.
3.1 Bugs should be welcomed as a side dish.

4. Chatter don’t document.
4.1 Commune about code (and anything else that comes to mind) while coding, not after.
4.2 Documentation should be performed not forgotten.
4.3 Comments are the point.

Slow code is written by those who will use it with those who will use it for the pleasure of the gathering. Everything else is work.

Additional edits 5.16.04. This entry, by the way, is for you Steve.

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