I agree wholeheartedly with what you're saying, David. Even though the top
down structured programming style was learned out of necessity for us
old-timers, I still believe it's a good habit to get into because it can
cause problems for the scripter down the road in that it's amazing how much
we forget about the program we wrote a few months ago when we need to update
it. This is also why commenting is very important; especially when you had
to do something in a particular way in order to get it to work. And finally,
writing readable code and commenting it well was also drilled into my head
so that if someone else had to take on the project they could do so. Many
businesses have strict code writing conventions for this purpose. And it's
the first thing a new programmer is handed when they walk in the door. I've
seen too much code, particularly in recent years, that no one could ever
take over, or if they could it would be a nightmare and a waste of a lot of
time spent just trying to untangle the disorganized and/or cryptic mess.
Regards,
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: "David" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 2:56 AM
Subject: Re: VBScript NotePad App and Loading To App Central
Guess, one reason why many people will do their definitions - including
their subrotuines and functions - at the beginning, then do the main body of
the app; it all comes from old. At least, for the ones of us, who is coming
in from the old days, we are all used to things like Pascal (and I do
believe it was the same thing in C). In those programming languages, you
were not allowed to do anything, unless you first had the Variables,
Procedures and functions, already defined. That meant - since the encoder
would process the program (app) consequtively, starting out with line 1, and
finishing with the last line - you would have no other choice but to place
your main body at the bottom. The transformation into scripting, is a bit of
a jump over for old-timers like me and many others. Specially so, when comes
to reading other peoples app code. You read, and all the sudden meet up with
an instruction, that looks intesting and nice. Right away, you think this is
a built-in feature of the scripting language, and so implement the
instruction in your own code. Then try to run your newly constructed app,
and are left with an error thrown at you, and pretty soon the waiste basket
full of newly pulled hair - since you do¨n't see why that error got thrown
at you. Finally, you decide to read the rest of the 1000 lines from the
original script that you downloaded, and at line 995, you find the reason
for being bald-headed: This was an instruction, pointing to a subroutine of
some kind, that the author has put the code of, at the very end of his
script. I have been playing around with scripting in VBS for a couple of
years now, and still find it confusing to see main bodies at the top - or
even somewhere hidden in between all kinds of subs, functions and variable
definitions. After something like two decades of Pascal programming, it all
looks to me, as if you were going to do a job - like building a house - and
you put the hose on the plot first, then brought out your toolbox.
Another practice, that I don't find very convenient when reading through
other peoples code, is the tendency of scattering their variable
definitions (dim statments) all over the place. Again, looks like a
carpenter, who just left his hammer, saw, screw-driver, drill - all over the
plac - simply dropping it where he found it convenient. Then atain, when in
college, studying for my electronic edducation, we were always told to first
sit down and figure the problem find a solution, make up our minds on what
to do, where, when and how to do it. This meant, to bring the tools we
needed. Guess this made the basis for our computer skills, as in the method
of programming described above (taken from Pascal), you'd have to define -
or as if it was, bring your tools - at the beginning of the code.
Again, think of a person who wants to bake a cake. She would typically go to
her cuppard and fridge, making sure she had what the reipe told was neeeded
for ingrediences, before she would even dream of getting started with the
baking process itself. Or, are you used to start cooking, all the sudden
realizing that you are out of eggs, then run to the store and pick up eggs
(or let's say put ind an instruction in your code - Dim EGGS). Then coming
back to your cooking, you continue with the job, only to realize you now are
left with the lack of a qurter of milk. S, you drop down to the store and
pick it up -. or in your code Sub Quarter of milk() ... End Sub 'Quarter of
milk.
For people who got started out directly in modern scripting, all of this
chatter of mine, might seem useless. But at least, that is where old-timers
like me are coming from. I am not going to claim that the one way of
handling things are to be more correct over the other. Simply just letting
people know, why some people tend to put the main body here, others will
drop it there. Good thing Windows doesn't mind! Smile. After all, one
practice that would have been helpful, but which seems to often being left
behind, is the clearly marking of where your different parts are placed in
the code. Good commenting habits, I guess, is the keywords here. Again, here
you will sometimes see that there is a couple of practices. Some people like
to do the job first - writing ther line of code -and then explain what they
have just accomplished, by dropping a comment in their app code. Others,
like myself, find it more useful, first to tell the reader WHAT you are
going to do - then go ahead and do it. Like:
'We now will take an user input of the phone number:
PNumber = Input "Phone number please? "
Again, none of the methods are more correct than the other. And different
app authors will cling to the one or the other. But, as people start to read
the different app codes from others, they might wonder why all this
differences in practice - and does it matter what way I personally handle
the job. In things like VBS, and in the cases here discussed, it doesn't
matter for the performance of the app. But it might impact the readability
of the code, mainly for yourself. So, at the end, I think it will stand as
this: Find the practice that you yourself are familiar with, then go ahead.
Only, keep in mind that others might want to read your app, or you yourself
want to modify it at a later time. That's why, it is always good to make
sure, that it stands out clearly what you have done. A small 'log-file',
that goes with your app, is of course a pretty good idea. Yet, see how many
does keep such a logfile? Smile!
----- Original Message -----
From: Chip Orange
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 3:33 AM
Subject: RE: VBScript NotePad App and Loading To App Central
Very nice Rick; thanks, and I hope everyone in the class will download the
.zip file attached to Rick's message. he's not only provided his solution,
but he's provided a "walk through" document, a kind of log of his process
for developing this app and debugging and testing it as he put the two parts
together, to make sure everything was working ok.
Rick, I've decided this is useful enough to me that I'm going to keep mine
running, but I don't feel like taking on the support of another app just
now. so, if you'd like to do it, feel free to finish it off and upload it
to app central; I think it's useful and belongs in the program enhancements.
If you don't feel like doing it though, maybe let the list know in case
someone else would like to take it on?
One thing I'd like to mention to the beginning students: in my examples,
I've always placed the code of the main body of any app at the start of the
.vbs file. You'll find Rick has placed his down into the .vbs file (a not
uncommon practice), marked with a comment.
this is all the same to Window-eyes, no matter where it's placed, it takes
all the statements which are not in a subroutine or function, and groups
them together and executes them as the main body; just something I thought I
should mention now, as I don't ever recall mentioning this point earlier,
and someone may have thought there was no main body code.
Chip
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: RicksPlace [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2011 4:51 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: VBScript NotePad App and Loading To App Central
Hi Chip: Here is the Script files for the NotePad script we were
working on in class.
It is unfinished since I did not want to upload it to App Central unless
this is the version that would be a good Production Fit with anything else
up there for NotePad.
Also, since I have not uploaded it I don't have a real ID, ScriptNamed
Website and whatever else goes along with uploading a script properly. That
said, this is getting close and I will check out any docs on uploading
scripts.
I to not want to add to the bloat that is happening with the available
scripts by putting up some test script so will wait until I hear from you
here or in class.
Anyway, it's done for now so it is what it is.
Let me know if you are going to put a real NotePad script up or if you are
going to modify an existing script.
Rick USA
