Creative science...

Some people say science and art are Yin and Yan.

I have always thought of programming as an instance where they do mix. I'm not talking about programming looking asthetically pleasing, more about the creativity involved in producing it. The science part is because you are working with a pre-defined set of rules. Things only work if you get syntax exactly right. The artistic part is derived from the fact that there can be within these pre-defined rules, many ways of achieving the same result. The creativity comes from achieving the goal by thinking round corners and working out clever ways of manipulating the programming environment and language to produce the result. I love seeing people doing a certain programming tasks which do exactly the same thing as something done previously but they do it in a completely different manner. They just see the problem from a different angle.

I've recently been working on a project at work which has required me learn what XML is and how to use it. Joe's previous Blip of Strong Lucky Jim gave me a wee inspiration jolt for a weekend project involving XML and Flash. The problem is that I only use Flash in wee spurts and each time I have to re-learn ActionScript.