> Just to throw in my own $0.02 is to state that programmers in VFP and > Python and whatever other language they like by keeping their > methods/function short and concise. > > I've worked with programmers where their functions were 100's if not > 1000's of lines long. It seems to be equally unreadable if you're > looking at an unindent or an ENDIF or a } that is five levels > (indentions) deep and you have to page up 10 times to guess at the > beginning condition. It's just a pet peeve of mine. > > If it doesn't fit onto a single page of the display (+/-) > then you can probably break it into another method.
There is truth to what you say, so I'm not really debating your point, but will add that the distinction of what is a function boils down to concise definition in words that 'can fit on a license plate'. For example, "wake_up_the_donkey" or "check_this_address" are suitably named functions, even though they can take tons of code to achieve, with loads of inner functions (your point, I believe). Some programmers look at a problem and mentally envision it being broken up into a set of well-named functions, while others will just pour code at it, from the beginning to the end on one long page. I think this characterizes one distinction between the best and the worst programmers. After all the years I've been doing this, frankly, I'm still polishing this skill. Some of you guys have been this way since birth, I know, but the rest of us need to be reminded and coached until we get it right. The point I'm emphasizing is that definition is the driving force, and size second, but agreeing that it's good practice to manage size as well. The other side of this is complexity of code. Some programmers are capable of nesting so much that they themselves can't figure out what they did a year later (C programmers are notorious for this), so while their code might fit on a single page, it would be better had they spelled it out in an easier-to-read way that might have taken more than a page. Bill Please give that method a > meaningful name too! Most abbreviations suck! > > </rant> > > Kevin Cully _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
