[garysweaver]

Programming is an art, but as you get older and more experienced, you become less able to express yourself in a way that doesn't seem both rote and belabored.

It is closer to making furniture than painting or sculpture, as it tends to need to be practical in some way. But if it were furniture making, you'd continually be presented with new designs, new types of wood and other materials, and new tools to make your furniture with, so you'd never know exactly how long it would take to make a couch or a bedroom set.

[brazzy]

i.e. it's not an art - it's a craft.

[garysweaver]

It is both. Code and the effect it produces can be a thing of beauty, ugliness, or both, and at times the emotion and creative energy put into it would make it rival any art. But, I agree that more often it is like a craft because it tends to evolve into larger projects that need more skill and technique.

Creatives/artistic types enjoy modular, greenfield development or pushing the limits of confinement to produce something of beauty and use. Practical/craftsman/engineer types enjoy using technique to build, design, and maintain large systems because they enjoy process, skill, and established ways of doing things. There is room for both.