從 The Timeless Way of Building 學設計 (5)

07/25 22:30~23:48

在寫這一篇之前，Teddy 心中有一個疑問，這一系列的文章，會不會太玄了一點，到底有沒有人在看啊？Teddy 是不是要學一下電視台，對於收視率太低的節目讓它提早下檔...獨角戲唱久了也是會累滴。

請翻開課本第 526~527 頁：

But then I read a passage in an ancient Chinese painting manual--the Mustard Seed Garden manual of painting--which made the situation clear to me.

這句有點沒頭沒尾的，先解釋一下。Alexander 在他的書中經常會提起以前古老的建築物具有許多好的特質，而當今的許多建築物則是缺少了這樣的特質。久而久之 Alexander 不禁懷疑自己內心是否屬於守舊派，而他的創作也只是在重複以前人們的作品而已。一直到他有一天讀了一本中國清朝初年的書，叫做『芥子園畫傳 （又稱為芥子園畫譜）』，他才釋疑。這本書的英文版在 Amazon 也買得到喔，真是太猛了。

接著看下去，有點長，請耐心看完。

The writer of the manual describes how, in his search for a way of painting, he had discovered for himself the same central way that thousands of others like him had also discovered for themselves, throughout the course of history. He says that the more one understands of painting, the more one recognizes that the art of painting is essentially one way, which will always be discovered and rediscovered, over and over again, because it is connected with the very nature of painting, and must be discovered by anybody who takes painting seriously. The idea of style is meaningless: what we see as a style (of a person or of an age) is nothing but another individual effort to penetrate the central secret of painting, which is given by the Tao, but cannot itself be named. 

上面用藍色與紅色標注的這幾句 Teddy 覺的很重要，繪畫（換成建築，廚藝，園藝，軟體開發都行）的藝術基本上只有一種方法，而這種方法勢必被認真，用心投入繪畫的人不斷地發現與重複發現。至於所謂的 style 則是不重要的，這只是某人或是某個時代來引導人們一窺繪畫秘密的一種手段而已。繪畫的核心秘密是『道』所賦予的，但是本身卻無法被命名。

還是看不懂，好吧，用現代人的講法：『只要有心，人人都可以是食神』。

為了沒買書的人，Teddy 就打多一段吧。這一段就不解釋了。

The more I learn about towns and buildings, the more I feel the same thing to be true. It is true that many of the historic styles of building have some quality in common--they have it not because they are old, but because man has, over and over again, approached the secret which is at the heart of architecture. In fact, the principles which make a building good, are simple and direct--they follow directly from the nature of human beings, and the laws of nature--and any person who penetrates theses laws will, as he does so, come closer and closer to this great tradition, in which man has sought for the same thing, over and over again, and come always to the same conclusions.

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問題又來了，這些和設計有何關係？鄉民們先想一下...

講一個故事。Teddy 帶著實驗室的學弟們開發一個『持續整合』系統也已經有五年多的時間了，在這過程中，我們嘗試了許多 『styles』，例如：

• 利用『Javaspaces 分散式架構』與平行計算技術來加快持續整合的速度。
• 套用 Eclipse 中的 Builder 概念，讓使用者可以很容易的使用『單一整合工作』，而開發者也可以很容易的擴充各種新的整合工作。
• 基於上述兩點，讓系統達到『跨平台持續整合』的功能。
• 導入持續整合 workflows，讓使用者自行設定整合流程。
• 支援專案，相依專案，與函式庫專案的概念。

還有一堆有的沒的。這些手段，都只是我們試著去探求『持續整合核心秘密』的方法，而非最終目的。這個『持續整合核心秘密』本身很精確，但是卻無法被命名，只有透過不斷地在軟體開發中親身徹底貫徹實施『持續整合』才可以慢慢地了解。雖然 Teddy 經常提醒學弟們既然在研究持續整合，就要『用力的』在開發軟體的時候實踐它，如此才能了解『problem domain』的真正需求。很可惜大多數的人並沒有體會到這件事情的重要性，而比較關注在技術性的問題上（solution domain）。

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結論，『The art of painting must be discovered by anybody who takes painting seriously』。做學問或做任何事情要升格到『達人』的境界，勢必要腳踏實地，逐步踏實。馬步蹲的穩，以後功夫學得自然快，學得深。

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友藏內心獨白：一個 Teddy 兩個 teams，同樣的帶人方法進度為什麼差那麼多？