Re: What constitutes simple code? (Was:: [tcphp] Simplify a function?)

I tend to think that all code can fall into one of several categories...

simple, efficient, powerful, agile, elegant, scalable, readable, usable,
and useful

The goal with any project is to hit as many of those as possible. But
the reality is, there's often a trade off. Elegant code my not be
powerful. Simple code may not be scalable, and so on.

That's my 2 cents ;)



On Fri, 2008-01-04 at 15:16, Ryan Coleman wrote:

> Wow,
> 
> I really started a thread here.
> 
> First off I would like to thank everyone for their input on my original 
> inquiry. Simplification, in my expectation, was taking the 14-line 
> function down to as few as possible and Benjamin Holmberg got me exactly 
> what I needed.
> 
> Now so  that I can weigh in on the offspring of my inquiry.
> 
> IMO simplified code does not have to be easy to understand or have 
> documentation. In fact, I try to have as few lines of code in my 
> software as possible. But I own my code and don't use anyone else on 
> projects directly. But I see the reasoning for joint and open projects 
> to have the documentation, absolutely. I've had to use that a few times 
> over the last few years.
> 
> But Simple code can really just mean FAST code. I have some scripts that 
> I need to rewrite that I wrote years ago that are 3000+ lines long and, 
> depending on the directory it is parsing, takes seconds to hours to 
> complete. So it's really six of one and a half dozen of the other.
> 
> --
> Ryan
> 
> Erik Giberti wrote:
> > But why not $a++; in that instance?
> >
> > I had a CS instructor who hated ++ because it wasn't clear what you 
> > were asking the machine to do.
> >
> > Consider: $A = $A + 1;
> >
> > If your reading it as, "variable A equals variable A plus 1," you 
> > would be checking for truth, which of course is incorrect and 
> > illogical hence why folks with a mathematical background hate it.  It 
> > is fundamentally clearer if you read the statement as, "variable A 
> > gets the value of variable A plus 1." A habit I learned from Pascal 
> > which uses := for assignment. It more accurately reflects what your 
> > asking the system to do.
> >
> > As a programer, our job is often to translate (as Warren J said) from 
> > the real-world into the programming world. Sometimes the real world is 
> > just as obtuse but we're employed as the tour guides bridging the gap 
> > not to critique the differences.
> >
> > Erik
> >
> > On Jan 4, 2008, at 10:50 AM, mike schrenk wrote:
> >
> >> I know that math people hate lines of code that look like this:
> >> $a = $a + 1;
> >> Which, of course, is mathematically impossible.
> >>
> >> As we all know: $a+=1;  is not only correct but more readable =)
> >>
> >> --schrenk,
> >
> >
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Brandon Carlson
Zend Certified Engineer
Aphion Inc - Enhancing the web experience, one site at a time
www.aphion.com
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