On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:32:30 +0000, Ted MacNEIL wrote:
>
>I find the weak programmers are the ones to use strange (and often
>misunderstood) tricks, or as we used to call it 'spaghetti code'.
>
What's a "trick"? What's an "idiom"? In a recent discussion in
TSO-REXX, Phil Smith, among others, urged that programmers understand
the idioms of whatever language. I strongly agree; perhaps I go
beyond his notion of idiom. A programmer fluent in other languages,
and naive in HLASM might code IC ... STC in a loop and consider
BCTR ... EX ... MVC a "trick".
Or, how about (Rexx):
if X<>Y
then call foo ( 1 )
else call foo ( 0 )
/* versus: */
call foo ( x<>y )
/* ? */
(Superfluous parentheses added for benefit of "weak programmers".)
I unashamedly do the latter. Anyone who complains should simply
read "The Rexx Programming Language".
Or:
IF TRANSACTION_AMOUNT <> 0.00
THEN MASTER_TOTAL = MASTER_TOTAL + TRANSACTION_AMOUNT
(This is a literal transcription of a specification that
an imaginary accountant versed in desk calculator processes
might have given a programmer: "Why bother adding zero?")
-- gil
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