The Gist

Q: I don't know a lot about music or Beethoven. What are you talking about?

A: In a nutshell, there are a ton of tools and ideas to use when writing software, from simple Bash scripts to multi-threaded, aspect-oriented "flux capacitor" design patterns. They all have their place. It is our burden, as software composers, to use them properly. When an idea hits that sweet-spot between utility and elegance, that's Code to Joy.

The "rub" is that there isn't necessarily a right answer as to where that sweet-spot is.... There is an aesthetic debate on top of the engineering considerations. And that's fun stuff.

I fully concede that this site is experimental -- it may or may not take the musical analogy very far. It may well be a positive alternative to the "What The Heck" sites that post unbelievably bad code -- the idea is to talk about composing good software.