Programmer Musings

The Importance of Programming Play

For various reasons , I've recently been thinking on the importance of programming play, Those times when we tinker with code without any goal other than making something run on the computer. Sometimes this involves playing with a new language or a feature of an old language that we've recently discovered.

Unlike projects for work, these exercises rarely produce any grand system that makes money or provides services. Often they result in minor amusements, small tools, or throw-away code. The main purpose of the exercise is stretching our programming muscles. Trying out a new technique or feature without the pressure of having to succeed gives you the opportunity to stretch in ways you can't when a deadline is looming. Not having a deadline also allows you to experiment with ideas that may be too risky for production use. Like brainstorming, this appears to be a very effective way of developing new approaches and keeping sharp.

Lately, it seems that many programmers that I know and ones I read have lost sight of this simple pleasure and its importance. But, many of the best programmers I've known were always playing with code. They have numerous little side projects going on, some of which will never be completed. Some are huge, ornate systems and some are little utilities. The main thing they all have in common is that the main goal of each of these projects is enjoyment.

Fortunately, not everyone in our field has forgotten. In Fun, Simon St. Laurent talks about the thing that got him into the field. Dave Thomas suggests the concept of programming Katas as a way to keep your skills sharp. These are more exercise than play, but the goal is the similar. In the book Slack, Tom DeMarco explored some aspects of this issue. The Perl community has had a long-standing tradition of playing with code including the Obfuscated Perl Contest (which has it's origins in a similar contest for C) and Perl Golf.

The key point here is that programming is a creative activity. It is hard to be creative without taking risks and trying wild ideas. In our day jobs, we very rarely have the opportunity to risk a project on a wild idea. (At least not more than once.) But when you are playing, you have that chance. The only thing you risk is some time, and whichever way the idea goes you gain experience. Trying and refining wild ideas gives us new techniques that can be used when we really need them.