| API's exposed is a user defined requirement. Most optimal is also user defined. Whenever something is "user defined" that means you make it up because you're actually exiting the world of the simple program. These things are akin to business requirements or UX/UI. A popular word that's often used to figure out these things is the word "design" as opposed to "calculate." When we "calculate" something we are performing a mechanical operation designed to solve a problem with the most "optimal" solution. When we "design" something we are pulling a solution out of our imagination with no way to verify that it is the most "optimal" solution. Note that the word "optimal" is something we make up and define ourselves. For example: What is the optimal way to get from point A to point B? One definition of "optimal" in mathematics (a small universe similar to programming) is the shortest distance. For this we have a calculation: a line. Another definition of "optimal" in the reality we occupy as humans (a large universe much bigger than math or the simulation in our computer systems) is the shortest time it takes for a human to move from A to B. The solution to this is "designed" we have several options to choose from but to fulfill the requirement of shortest time... we currently tend to choose a plane as it is the fastest vehicle available. However, we have no way of knowing whether the plane we took is the best possible solution humanity has ever come up with. The amount of possibilities here is so large we can't calculate a solution. Programming within the bounds of "design" requirements and user specified definitions of "optimal" lives in a small universe similar to a mathematical universe of axioms and theorems meaning that we can very well calculate the most optimal programs rather then design a sub optimal one. There is much research on this topic, I'd look into Prolog, category theory, dependent types, formal methods and that kind of thing to learn more. It's very deep and is basically a whole different topic. So given a portion of the definition of "optimal" that most people can agree on: "less bugs at zero performance cost," pattern matching is a calculated improvement over if statements and switch cases. Thanks to exhaustive matching you must handle every possible instantiation of a type or the program cannot compile. This is a definitive and logical improvement over all other case handling methodologies. There is no need for an artistic analogy to illustrate a point, the improvement is definitive and logical. Whenever a human turns to "art" to solve a problem it literally means they don't have the knowledge on how to find the most "optimal" solution. Also very likely they don't even have a clear definition of what they want as "optimal." |