>> (5) Adopt the convention that any function that is not as trivial as "int
>> x() { return m_x; }" moves out of the class declaration.
>
> How about we simplify this slightly to:
>
> (5) Adopt the convention that any function that is nontrivial should be moved
> out of the class declaration.
>
> We can give an example as to what might constitute trivial if we wish (e.g.
> is a one liner), but I think leaving a little wiggle room to allow developers
> to apply common sense would be a good thing. While moving all complex
> functions out of class definitions sounds good, for some small classes being
> able to leave some very simple functions in the class declaration might not
> hurt, and might make the code easier to work with. E.g.:
>
> int y()
> {
> ASSERT(m_y != BAD_VALUE);
> return m_y;
> }
If possible, I'd like to establish clarity on what "trivial" or "nontrivial"
means. This can save us debates in future patch reviews about what's "trivial
enough".
To me, "trivial" means short. My straw-man proposal is "one-line functions
only".
Failing that, I would at least like to pick some number. Maybe 6 lines, since
that's just enough for a branch with an early return.
Thought complexity notwithstanding, non-trivial functions mainly get in the way
of reading an interface because they take up space. "int x() { return m_x; }"
is fine by me because it doesn't add any lines of code over "int x();".
Notably, the next shortest function possible in WebKit style after one line is
five lines. That means that I see 5X less of the class declaration in one
screenful of code, and I have to do 5X more scrolling before I can see the data
members in a class. To me, that's a significant blow to readability for a
slight improvement in write-ability. Given that reading is more common than
writing, I'm inclined to argue that >1 line functions are not worth it.
In general, I think brevity in class declarations is particularly important. I
often find myself needing to read all of the public interfaces of a class, or
look at a declaration in relation to a prior "public" or "private" keyword, or
scroll past the interface declarations to get to the data members. (In
contrast, I rarely need to read all of the function implementations of a class
at once, or scroll to a specific lexical location among a set of function
implementations.) Within some limits, I'm willing to write code more slowly so
I can read declarations more quickly.
Geoff
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