Through the course of my work and reading, I encountered a write-up about what makes code "pretty" with reasonable suggestions for establishing and maintaining a code style. The essential objective is to make the code readable by others. As I work with undergrads, they are not always thrilled about the effort required for "pretty" code, yet they can accept that I have to read and understand their program. Yet this barely compares to the effort required in a commercial context, where the code may have a multi-year lifetime and pass through many programmers.
Is pretty code elegant? No, although the reverse is true (and thus the title). Elegant code has an aesthetic aspect that can be termed pretty, yet it must also be more than aesthetic. My continuing proposal of elegant is code that must also be efficient, extensible, reliable, etc. Basically, to be elegant, code must leave the objectors behind. Instead, you want to show others your elegant code.
So go and write pretty code.
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