IMHO I use the term 'overly grand' when i review existing prior code on my
current and new clients and there is a very large verbose nature to it. Not
being conclusive, but often times the code looks nice but there's way too
much 'air' in the program at the expense of being better in the logic area.
Certainly I've not read everyone's code. But what I've seen over the years
has taught me that when I see grandness, that grandness takes a 200 line
program and makes it 700. Case in point:
***************
*
* OPEN MD FILE
*
***************
OPEN "","MD" TO F.MD ELSE
ERRMSG="CANNOT OPEN THE MD FILE. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR PROGRAMMER"
GOSUB 90000
STOP
END
*********************
*
* OPEN PRODUCT FILE
*
*********************
OPEN "","PRODUCT" TO F.PRODUCT ELSE
ERRMSG="CANNOT OPEN THE PRODUCT FILE. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR
PROGRAMMER"
GOSUB 90000
STOP
END
************************
*
* END OF OPENING FILES
*
************************
What gets me is the time spent to make the asterisks match the length of the
comments. I see your variable assignment style a lot yet if a new variable
were needed, say
CUSTOMER.LAST.SALE.DATE = ""
would you re-indent all of the other variables just to look pretty? (I don't
mean pretty in a derogatory way, I mean to spend your time and the client's
$ for something that really doesn't matter)
I know that there are some system-generated source code 4GL's that may
create the comments for you. But I can see past that with the inconsistent
content of the actual code.
There is a command which escapes me now that formats source code (not
necessarily databasic) in the editor to match old-school BAL programming.
I've tripped over it by accident and then lose my changes as I EXit and then
re-edit to not have all the 'air'.
Some could argue that a 200 line program becoming 700 could fall under the
concept of standardized programming or making it easier for the next guy.
Well, I'm that 'next guy' plenty of times and since it's very inconsistent,
it's certainly not a standard. I could write a book on the wide variety of
programming 'standards' I've inherited and the ineffeciencies found.
It's unfortunate that in my travels the grandness happens to have a related
brother of reduced logic and a more brute force approach. It's just harder
to research with all of that clutter.
My 2 cents.
Mark Johnson
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 6:56 AM
Subject: Re: [U2] [UV] making 00001 our of 1
> Mark,
>
> I'm one of those programmers who use the "overly grand" way of spacing you
> describe. I believe that
>
> ASDTFY = ''
> AS = ''
> DRT = 0
>
> is much more readable than
>
> ASDTFY=''
> AS=''
> DRT=0
>
> especially when there is a lot more code than in this example, and
> everything else around it is crammed together as tightly as it can be as
well. Code is
> written for the human as much as the compiler, and I like it to be as
easy
> to read (and spot errors) as possible.
>
> This spacing won't bother a find program if you wrote it or have the
source,
> and teach it better.
>
> My 4 cents.
>
> Regards,
> Charlie Noah
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) writes:
>
> [snip]
> P.S. If you use my concept, you may want to have your search strings
contain
> no spaces and convert to "" the spaces in each reviewed line. There is a
> overly grand way people program with spaces between operators and even
> though the complier doesn't care, FIND programs or the editor will miss
them
> if they don't match exactly.
>
> My 3 cents.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Barry Brevik" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
>
>
> > >I have always used "R%5" but I may miss programs
> > >that use other techniques to arrive at the same result.
> > >Can someone give me examples that they have seen for changing 1 to
00001?
> >
> > I don't want to start a religious war, but I think it is completely
normal
> > to use:
> >
> > NBR = NBR "5'0'R"
> >
> > or
> >
> > NBR = NBR"5'0'R"
> >
> > Barry
> > -------
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