Preface: “Thou Shalt Not Complicate” is planned as a series of strong rants on programming in general and Ruby programming in particular. The main thought is dead simple (and already emphasized in series title): complexity is our enemy. All we do, all we try to do while developing software—is bearing with complexity introduced by real-life. Yet some of our approaches, techniques and libraries introduce unwanted complexity by themselves, which is bad. As simple is that.

Statement 1: I’m deeply convinced there’s only three kinds of good programmers:

a) Programmers-engineers: entire “program” is a mechanizm for them, or even blueprint of mechanizm;

b) Programmers-mathematicians: entire program is a formula, or set of formulae, proof of something;

c) Programmers-writers: entire program is a text.

(There’s also numerous kinds of bad programmers: programmers-managers, programmers-moneymakers, programmers-labourers and so on. Let’s not talk about them. Ever.)

What it means to belong to some of kinds? How you write code. What you consider good and bad code. How development of overall architecture works in your head. What kind of problems you are best at.

Very schematically, it can be said that “engineers” tend to see perfect hi-level structures, embrace usage of patterns and sometimes neglect details. “Mathematicians” are irreplaceable around algorithmically-complex problems yet can sacrifice almost everything in the name of purity, and “writers” are all about “pretty code” and “code smells” and stuff, while sometimes neglecting the huge picture.

It’s cosidered useful to know your own type: this way you can develop its strengths better and compensate its weaknesses wiser.

Here I’m expected to say each good team should have all of types, and distribute tasks between them etc etc. Yet it is almost never the case. Because —

Statement 2: Your “ideal” programming language depends on your type.

This is tricky one, yet obvious if you think. All of those discussions with good developers speculating on “how could possibly anyone write big amount of code in dynamically typed language?” or “how can anybody enjoy Java?” or what is right OO (and how nobody groks it) or how the FP it The Answer to Everything…

As much as about Statement 1, I’m convinced that language (or rather language + tools + infrastructre + community) imposes some mindset, and your hapiness and productivity as a developer is deeply correlated with correspondence of your mindset to mindset of language and ecosystem you work with.

There can be many speculations thought out about which language represents which mindset, but one thing I know for sure —

Statement 3: Ruby is for (c) kind, for programmers-writers.

Fortunately, I should not defend this statement, as it is defended much more strongly and clearly than I could by language’s creator. In “Beautiful Code” book, Yukihiro Matsumoto’s chapter is called “Treating Code As an Essay” and expresses exactly the thought about Ruby as a language: it designed the way allowing to rather write in it than develop or calculate. It is either for you, or not for you.

Still, for both essays and computer code, it’s always important to look at how each one is written. Even if the idea itself is good, it will be difficult to transmit to the desired audience if it is difficult to understand. The style in which they are written is just as important as their purpose. Both essays and lines of code are meant—before all else—to be read and understood by human beings.

Unlike Matz, I don’t think that “code is meant to be read” (and therefore be The Text in a first place) is such a strong imperative. Some languages, and good languages it is, are meant rather to do the “blueprints”—large and complex whole pieces, which you investigate back and forth until grasp. Others are mindblowing yet concise formulations of state-of-the-art algorithms.

But Ruby, definitely, is for writing texts. Either you feel it, or you’ve choosen the wrong language

Note: Of course, all those “texts” are having pragmatic purpose. We are writing something working, extendable and supportable, not just expressing ourselves. In some sense, we—Ruby programmers—are all writing the same text. Therefore, our style guides and code conventions are a good thing. All in all, there’s no point in trying to mix 5 parts of Finnegan’s Wake with 1 part of Stranger in a Strange Land and hope for reasonable outcome.

The Big Conclusion: One and the only sign of good Ruby code, good Ruby library, good Ruby architecture is this:

On every level you have clean, readable, terse, ingenious text.

Somebody can argue about usability of methods of 140 lines length because they provide “the great overview”. But in Ruby, in good Ruby, in our Ruby, each line or statement is an extended sentence for thoutful reading, and each method is a paragraph of overall text. And it concerns all levels: ideally, even the top level of your software is just a few paragraphs saying “it does so-and-so”, with deeply “explanations” in components and libraries.