Spacing is "overly grand"? Though I can't cite specifics, I do recall a study done several years ago that talked about the ergonomic value of whitespace in code. At the risk of misquoting, it seems the brain interprets whitespace as a natural terminator when reading through code, and makes it easier to interpret variable names like ASDTFY or DRT. By contrast, the brain has to manually interpret = as a terminator (and the next statement) and it slows down the overall comprehension.
ASDTFY = "" DRT = "" When the brain sees the first space after the variable, it understands that the previous whatever-it-is is complete. Then when it sees the equal symbol it can comprehend the meaning of the symbol independently of the variable. Secondly, when assignments (and the like) are aligned like this it tends to reinforce the relationship between the variables, which may be otherwise indirect. By contrast: ASDTFY="" DRT="" When the brain sees the = after the variable, it has to first sort out an ambiguity. Is this the termination of what was shown prior, or something new? In truth, it's both, and then both have to be processed as equal priority until the brain can establish any other form of precedence to establish which is more important. This is then complicated by the fact that one must read to the end of the statement to determine there is no additional context for establishing precedence, which only complicates the mental process to a greater degree. Also, by having no alignment, there is no relationship implied in the variables, even though they are being assigned in tandem. This further reinforces the ambiguity. So in summary, you can write code as compact as you wish, but understand you do so at the risk of self-imposed (and otherwise unnecessary) mental strain. -Kevin [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.PrecisOnline.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 4:57 AM To: [email protected] 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 > ------- ------- u2-users mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/ ------- u2-users mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
