[astazangasta]

Why don't we just treat this like writing?

Good writing has one clear imperative: communicate meaningfully the intent of the author to the reader. Good code is no different; it is merely expressive writing in a different language, with, perhaps, greater constraint on its intent.

Some people make up rules like "don't use adverbs", or "don't split infinitives", in an effort to write better. But this doesn't necessarily produce good writing; sometimes an adverb is just what you need.

The same is true of code. These are useful things to think about, but "destroy all ifs" is akin to "never use a conjunction".

[swift]

I get what you're saying, but that's definitely not what good writing means in the context of, say, poetry, or literary fiction. Programming is best compared to technical writing or cookbooks, I think.

I realize this is one of those irritating "actually," replies, but what can I say, I'm sensitive about this topic. =)