I would not knock "starting from scratch" as a bad thing. Arthur Whitney has been known to do that, for example.
I think it matters more what you are accomplishing and your ability to make that useful for other people. Thanks, -- Raul On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 2:07 AM, robert therriault <[email protected]>wrote: > I am a terrible programmer, but I have found that including comments that > have examples of what the entity should do, are usually enough for me to > figure out what is going on. > > Without that ... I usually start from scratch, as that is faster and less > frustrating. > > I really am terrible at programming. > > Cheers, bob > > > On May 15, 2014, at 10:52 PM, 'Bo Jacoby' via Programming < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > "how does one write understandable J?" One does not write understandable > J! One writes as compactly as possible, and if it needs to be understood > it's parts are investigated piece by piece. Understandability is not a > property of text, but rather a property of relationship between text and > reader. / Bo. > > > > Den 3:51 fredag den 16. maj 2014 skrev Don Guinn <[email protected]>: > > > > What is easy and obvious depends so much on one's background. Several > years > >> ago we tried to teach a woman, at the time in her 80's, how to use a > >> Windows computer. Total failure. The real problem was that she could > see no > >> use in or reason to use a computer. She had no interest in learning it. > >> > >> Anyone who thinks that today's computer technology is intuitive, obvious > >> and easy should go to an old folk's home and try to teach them to use a > >> smart phone. But for a four-year-old. Piece of cake. > >> > >> > >> On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 6:10 PM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> > >>> I am convinced that most code is not understandable to most people, > >>> regardless of the language it is written in. When I look at how the > >>> computer industry has progressed, I see this more and more. People > write > >>> huge amounts of code, don't document it very well, then other people > use > >>> arbitrary bits of it and things sort of just freeze at that point. > >>> > >>> Personally, also, when I read code in any language, I do not feel I > really > >>> understand it until I see what it does to representative data. > >>> > >>> So clear descriptions, simple data, and good labels are where I would > focus > >>> most of my efforts in making code readable. And I would also expect > that > >>> most of my code is going to be unread by most people (and I'll get > dinged > >>> for utterly random stuff by people who do read it). > >>> > >>> I think the point of readability is: you are going to need to be able > to > >>> fix it, yourself, when it breaks, so you need to make it readable for > >>> yourself. And for that purpose, coming back and trying to read it a > month > >>> or so after you've written it can be a good exercise. > >>> > >>> Also, I've found that documenting code is a great way of making code > >>> simpler. It's quite often the case that it's easier to change the code > to > >>> be easy to document than it is to document some coding quirks that > >>> originally seemed to be a good idea. So if you want readable code, > another > >>> good thing to do is have a technical writer (or at least someone > reasonably > >>> literate) work with the programmer to document it for some audience. > >>> > >>> Of course, the most important thing is making sure that it works. > >>> > >>> Thanks, > >>> > >>> -- > >>> Raul > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 5:23 PM, Kip Murray <[email protected]> > >>> wrote: > >>> > >>>> How does one write understandable J? I offer my newt adverb below > which > >>>> uses spaces to promote understandability. > >>>> > >>>> Another technique might be Linda's "bottom up" style of first showing > >>>> pieces then putting the pieces together. What are your techniques? > >>> Please > >>>> illustrate. > >>>> > >>>> We would like at least to understand our own code when we come back to > >>> it! > >>>> > >>>> NB. Newton's method > >>>> > >>>> newt =: 1 : 0 > >>>> t =. y > >>>> h =. 1 % 512 > >>>> whilst. t ~: s do. > >>>> s =. t > >>>> t =. s - +: h * (u s) % (u s + h) - u s - h > >>>> h =. h % 2 > >>>> end. > >>>> t > >>>> ) > >>>> (2 - *:) newt 2 NB. Find root of 2 - *: near 2 > >>>> 1.41421 > >>>> (2 - *:) newt _2 NB. Find a root near _2 > >>>> _1.41421 > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> -- > >>>> Sent from Gmail Mobile > >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >>>> For information about J forums see > http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > >> > >>>> > >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >>> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > >>> > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > >> > >> > >> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
