A Complete Program // Richard Mavis dot info

I can’t remember who said it but there’s a saying about writing that goes something like “One does not complete a book, one abandons it.” Writing programs can sometimes feel similar—you might always think of parts of the interface you could improve or routines you could revise long after the program goes into use.But a program can reach a stage of completion. A program has a certain purpose, a more or less known goal and various well-defined and expected parts. It should probably receive input, probably process or act on that input in some way, and produce some output. So when the program fulfills that purpose—when its interface is fairly well built out, its supporting functions all debugged and performant, and its output satisfying—you could say that it’s complete. There might still be aspects that could be improved or revised—and there might always be—but, if it does what’s expected of it, then it’s fair to consider the program more or less complete, if not finished.