Re: It has served me well
The comparison with human language as two problems: firstly, it's completely invalid on a technical level. But even if computer languages were human languages then this would just underline the problems introduced by flexibility, or to give it a more apt name, ambiguity. Ambiguity is bad not only for anyone reading the code but, potentially, also for the compilers as all the problems with creating a query plan from an SQL statement demonstrate.
Anyone who is proud of their own unreadable code, considering it unreadable only by those less talented, doesn't understand what programming is about. Coding stye guidelines exist for a reason: some other poor sod is going to have to maintain that code that you dashed off a few years ago. But they're also not an end in themselves: foolish consistency is the hobgoblins of tiny minds.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
