Fwd: SPUG: A little style question....

James Munger jmunger1 at yahoo.com
Tue Sep 19 18:01:36 CDT 2000


> So what are some of the general opinions of perl-mongers out there?
> Are here docs a useful addition to programming languages, or are
> they bad form?

These are the sorts of questions that get me going,
and usually rambling, by the end.

I've two trains of thought on this sort of thing.
One is that I believe programming to not just be a
creative process, but an artistic one.  Interpret
that as you will.

The other is that someone else may one day have to
maintain your code.  This is more pragmatic than
the prior statement, of course.  But, at least in
business situations, odds are that some poor schlep
is going to have to read your 'art.'

My approach to programming is a combination of
these two - perhaps "compromise" is a better word,
as they sometimes clash.

One of the ways in which they can clash is evident
in the original question.  As usual, TIMTOWTDI,
but here we seem to be entering into "I can't
believe you do it that way!" territory.

My overall answer to your mail is:  do what
you will.  If your friend happens to inherit your
code someday, he can bitch all he wants, and
may try to persuade you to do differently next
time.  He may or may not be successful.  Same
goes in reverse.  Under extreme examples, you
might even recode (his code) to suit your own
whims.  I do this all the time.

Asking for consensus on programming style,
though.  -heh-  You might as well ask which
editor to use. :)

James
The Cobalt Group

P.S.

All this said, I find here documents to be much
more readable than anything else.  If there's a
block of interpreted text to be had, they do
the trick.  However, they clash with the
[indentation] style of my code.  After having
settled into this style, I've decided that the
break in aethetics is worth the tradeoff of
readability.

But -this- -is- -me-.  Anyone else is free to
disagree, and it may even influence my style.
Going back to the above, though, it can be like
telling a painter than he needs to use more blue.

Or, perhaps it's the programmers' "too many notes."


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