[OskarS]

I find that "great programming" is less about the style of the code itself. That part is craftsmanship, which beginners do poorly, but once you learn it, you've learned it. Expert coders may have differing styles, but it mostly just looks like "good style". Like how two expert carpenters might make slightly different style of chairs, and you can tell that both are made really well, but neither style is distinctive enough that it will blow you away.

No, true "artistry" in code I find comes less from style in code and more from architecture. Like, when you first learn about the unix pipeline, and realize how all these tiny programs are composable, and it blows your fucking mind? Or when you're faced with a huge codebase, framework or engine, and you start to explore how it works, and you realize how smartly designed everything is, and how easy it is to do stuff in it? (it doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's wonderful)

That's what great programmers do.

[yesenadam]

Thank you, yeah, that sounds right; it's more like design than like art.

Also, in pg's essay Great Hackers he says that no-one knows who the best programmers are; you have to work with them to know just how good they are.

http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html

[BadMathBook3]

So, less emphasis "neat/readable organization symbols in a particular file" (though it's still important) and more emphasis "neatly organized abstractions enabling broad application"?

I often find folks who prefer langs like C, or at least have a lot of experience with it, are better at that than Ruby/JS/Python folks who haven't used much else.