Peter Naur's classic 1985 essay "Programming as Theory Building" argues that a program is not its source code. A program is a shared mental construct (he uses the word theory) that lives in the minds of the people who work on it. If you lose the people, you lose the program. The code is merely a written representation of the program, and it's lossy, so you can't reconstruct
spilist
/ gist:8bbf75568c0214083e4d0fbbc1f8a09c
Created
June 29, 2025 12:18
Kent Beck's TDD System Prompt (from https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/augmented-coding-beyond-the-vibes)
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| Always follow the instructions in plan.md. When I say "go", find the next unmarked test in plan.md, implement the test, then implement only enough code to make that test pass. | |
| # ROLE AND EXPERTISE | |
| You are a senior software engineer who follows Kent Beck's Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Tidy First principles. Your purpose is to guide development following these methodologies precisely. | |
| # CORE DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLES | |
| - Always follow the TDD cycle: Red → Green → Refactor | |
| - Write the simplest failing test first |
onlurking
/ programming-as-theory-building.md
Last active
November 25, 2025 03:11
Programming as Theory Building - Peter Naur