>> Exchanging a single word for another may totally alter the effect of a passage
> I think that describes code perfectly.
I wasn't very clear here: what I meant was that exchanging a single word even for its closest synonym will always change the effect of a passage to some degree, because the intrinsic aesthetic qualities of the word inevitably alter the effect of the word.
This isn't true for code, where refactoring a line of code might change how readable that line is, while conceivably having an identical effect when the line is interpreted, compiled or executed.
> I think that describes code perfectly.
I wasn't very clear here: what I meant was that exchanging a single word even for its closest synonym will always change the effect of a passage to some degree, because the intrinsic aesthetic qualities of the word inevitably alter the effect of the word.
This isn't true for code, where refactoring a line of code might change how readable that line is, while conceivably having an identical effect when the line is interpreted, compiled or executed.