rdn32

Kevin Simler’s recent posting on ethics and programming features one of my favourite Brian Kernighan quotes. (I won’t repeat it here, as you can read it there.) This reminded me of another favourite thing: the cover illustration to The Practice of Programming, which features a little dog pointing out the book’s trio of key concepts.

This, in turn, reminded me of my master’s dissertation, which contains possibly the most pretentious reference to that cover illustration you can imagine. At the time I was surprised, and then a bit embarrassed, to get a good mark for the dissertation. The philosophical preamble, although sincere, felt like a poor attempt to make up for the disappointing results I’d obtained. That’s probably why I’ve never put the thing on-line before.

I’ve now read it again, for the almost the first time since I submitted it, and I don’t think it’s all that bad. Possibly I’m indulging my younger self a bit here: after all, I know the circumstances under which it was written. That said, I do think it makes some good points. The central thesis about the cognitive importance of beauty still seems relevant and interesting.

One thing in it’s favour was that, for all its faults, it was at least honest. There could be no question, for example, of my having faked my experimental results: if I had, they surely would have been more impressive. Also, I really did read the works cited. (I was far too naïve even to consider bluffing.)

Actually, I’ve got a bit of a confession to make. There was a work that I cited which I might only have skim-read: The Practice of Programming, by Kernighan and Pike.

I could be getting mixed up, as this was all quite a long time ago. However, my recollection is that I couldn’t afford to buy this book for myself, and the only copy I knew of was in the public library near Victoria Station. As often as not, this copy was out on loan.

Lacking ready access to the book, I couldn’t easily discuss its content in any depth. What I could do, however, was to take advantage of its memorable cover. The little dog points to the watchwords: simplicity, clarity, generality. Having been lodged in my mind, they made it into the dissertation.

It is, you would have to admit, quite a cute little dog.