Hacker News Reader

One of my favorite simple examples of what clean and elegant code can be is Peter Norvig's spellchecker: http://norvig.com/spell-correct.html

It's in Python and a single file but it comes with a wonderful description and shows how a complicated task can be broken down into a few small and powerful functions.

View on HN

But small systems are easier to get nice. Once they are not small it is there where all the hell begins. Alas, it is a big systems where nice code helps most.

Definitely true! You also have the luxury of tweaking every line of code for a small system to get it perfect.

It's also the reason for trying to break down larger systems into smaller, elegant components.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com