code aesthetics

Today at work I was sitting in front of JEdit (the IDE of choice for the current project) and for some reason I found it very hard to actually code the design I had been working on. Not because it was hard, not because I was unmotivated to work, but because I was overcome with a powerful feeling that the code would be ugly. It simply repulsed me. I did not want to write it.

I don't really know what set me off; usually I find my code to be quite beautiful. I generally carefully set up my development environment to gain the maximum distinction between categorically similar portions of the code (such as the standard text, the comments, and the string literals, the digits and the operators, etc.) while still maintaining a comfortable level of contrast between the text and the background color (pure white on pure black hurts). This practice has generally led me to what I consider to be a very beautiful display when combined with my general style practices, to which I adhere quite religiously (specifically, K&R style for the braces with 4-space tabs and a fair bit of commenting).

Today, though, I was sickened. I don't know why.

In any case, I did have a lot of code to write so I had to move on. I decided that the best way to move forward was to switch my color scheme in an attempt to dissuade my disillusionment. It seems to have worked fairly well.