David Honig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> At 02:26 PM 5/8/99 -0700, EKR wrote:
> >
> >If programmers though this way, they'd make an attempt to make their
> >source code readable, but by and large they don't.
>
> Um, are you talking your can't-yet-grow-a-moustache teenage
> "programmer" or an experienced person?
I think that most people, even professional programmers,
only make a marginal attempt to make their code readable,
which is why most code is basically unreadable.
> Moreover, the
> >code (especially C code) is littered with constructs which serve
> >no communicative purpose but solely tell the computer what to do.
>
> Wrong. My mental model, when understanding code, involves what
> the compiler does when it reads what I read. "int i" causes
> me, and a compiler, to model a bit of (possibly implicitly initialized)
> state. If its Java I'm reading, there are assumptions about
> how it goes away, too.
I believe you're failing to distinguish the intentional purpose
of code -- describing what you want done -- from the procedural
purpose of code -- describing what in fact is to be done. This isn't
surprising, given that no current language gives you the ability
to actually communicate your intentions as opposed to the
procedure. This is a bug, not a feature!
If your purpose in using code is to communicate with other
humans, what you want to communicate is intention with only
the barest amount of procedure. However, in reality programs
are almost all procedure with the barest amount of structure
to attempt to communicate intention to humans who need to
work on it.
> Eric I hope you're just miffed about reading some lame
> code written by some quasi-literate who can't touchtype.
Nope. I'm a professional programmer with a realistic attitude
about the situation. I'm not interested in making specious
arguments about how software is speech merely to serve a political
purpose -- even one I happen to agree with.
> Good code is more readable than legal prose to a non-lawyer.
To a non-programmer? I suspect that they're equally arcane.
Please feel free to present studies that show the contrary.
-Ekr
--
[Eric Rescorla [EMAIL PROTECTED]]
