这篇不谈技术。

为什么写这篇文章？因为刚毕业时看一本关于软件架构设计的书，记得有一句关于完美的话，但后来无论如何都想不起来了。只记得和飞机有关。而今年在看“The Pragmatic Programmer: your journey to mastery”第2版（20周年纪念版）时，却不期而遇这句话。

所以写这篇文章，以免以后忘记。

这句话位于第8章Before the Project中的Topic 45：The Requirements Pit。

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add but when there is nothing left to take away…
Antoine de St. Exupery, Wind, Sand, and Stars, 1939

意思是：

完美不是指不能添加任何东西，而是不能去掉任何东西…

这句话出自法国作家安托万·德圣埃克絮佩里于1939年创作的回忆录《风沙星辰》。

如果你对作者的名字感到陌生，那你一定听说过他之后的另一部作品：《小王子》。

安托万·德·圣埃克絮佩里不仅是一位作家，也是一位飞行员。

1944年在对抗纳粹德军执行飞行任务时失踪，后获得“法兰西烈士”称号。在他逝世50周年时，法国将他与小王子的形象印在50法国法郎的钞票上。

为什么之前会有印象和飞机有关？除了他是一位飞行员外，还需要看一下原文。
英译版的原文是这样的：

And now, having spoken of the men born of the pilot’s craft, I shall say something about the tool with which they work-the air-plane. Have you looked at a modern airplane? Have you followed from year to year the evolution of its lines? Have you ever thought, not only about the airplane but about whatever man builds, that all of man’s industrial efforts, all his computations and calculations, all the nights spent over working draughts and blueprints, invariably culminate in the production of a thing whose sole and guiding principle is the ultimate principle of simplicity?

It is as if there were a natural law which ordained that to achieve this end, to refine the curve of a piece of furniture, or a ship’s keel, or the fuselage of an airplane, until gradually it partakes of the elementary purity of the curve of 'a human breast or shoulder, there must be the experimentation of several generations of craftsmen. In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.

意思是：

现在，在谈到飞行员的诞生之后，我要谈谈他们工作的工具——飞机。你看过现代飞机吗？您是否逐年关注其产品线的演变？你有没有想过，不仅是飞机，而且是人类建造的任何东西，人类所有的工业努力，所有的运算和计算，所有在工作草稿和蓝图上度过的夜晚，总是最终生产出一种东西，它的唯一和唯一的指导原则是简单性的最终原则？

仿佛有一条自然法则注定要达到这个目的。从完善一件家具、一艘船的龙骨、或者一架飞机机身的曲线，到逐渐呈现出人体的胸部或肩膀曲线的基本纯粹性，必须经过几代工匠的实验。任何事物最终达到完美，并不是当不再有任何东西可以添加的时候，而是当不再有任何东西可以删减的时候，当身体被剥得只剩下赤裸裸的时候。

参考

• Where does this translation of Saint-Exupery’s quote on design come from?

• 维基媒体：50法郎的纪念币

• 维基百科：安托万·德·圣埃克絮佩里

• What is meant by: “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”?