To me programming is both engineering and something akin to literary composition. You want your design to be engineered well - perhaps "over" engineered for redundancy and reliability - but you end up actually building it with a formal language. This brings me to a wonderful quote:
"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?"
- George Orwell
The first two apply to composition in a formal language. Over-engineer the structure of the thing but be as merciless as Hemingway when actually composing your thoughts and sentences. Eschew excessive lines and actual tokens. Those are the byproducts of the rushed and/or cluttered mind (which commercial projects may necessitate ;)
"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?"
- George Orwell
The first two apply to composition in a formal language. Over-engineer the structure of the thing but be as merciless as Hemingway when actually composing your thoughts and sentences. Eschew excessive lines and actual tokens. Those are the byproducts of the rushed and/or cluttered mind (which commercial projects may necessitate ;)