Peter Naur wrote an essay about exactly that https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/016560...
replyIndeed, both Thurston's quote about mathematics, and Naur's programming as theory building, are classics that are relevant now more than ever. A download link for the latter: https://gwern.net/doc/cs/algorithm/1985-naur.pdf (PDF)
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