Simon Willison’s Weblog

Master of Fine Arts in Software

3rd October 2003

Richard P. Gabriel’s proposal for a Master of Fine Arts in Software looks like it’s getting some serious consideration from the University of Illinois (via Sam Buchanan). The idea of programming as a creative art has been around for a long time, so teaching it in this way is in some ways a logical progression. Personally I’m intrigued by the focus on reading other people’s code—“the work of masters”. This is something that been sadly lacking in my BSc course at Bath. Aaron Swartz started a collection of links to Quality Software last year, but other than that I don’t know of any resources dedicated to highlighting “classic” code that deserves to be studied.