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google code golf. In the productive world, an easier to understand program is better, even if that implies more code. Variable names like "TotalAmount" are be

by lucio 9y ago

google code golf. In the productive world, an easier to understand program is better, even if that implies more code. Variable names like "TotalAmount" are better than "x". Also, a 10 line procedural code is better than a one-line function, just because is easier to understand, and easier to change in the right way when the specification change. (it will change 15 times before implementation)

avmich 9y ago
Thank you. My experience tells me another story. More code in terms of code size in bytes isn't always more complex. For example, sometimes one wants to emphasize the similarities and analogies and spends extra bytes to show that. But that in my experience is rare - and while it could be beneficial for a novice or for a substantially unfamiliar code, for good code if soon becomes burdensome. TotalAmount instead of x would probably drive crazy most mathematicians. Or most APL programmers. And probably most people demonstrating code on a whiteboard. Even in more mainstream languages like Clojure or Haskell a lot of variables are rather short; it's unfortunate that C++ with history of Hungarian notation, Java or C# have a habit to use long names. There is a reason why mathematical notation exist. F = gmM / (R^2) is often preferable to "force is proportional to both masses and to inverse of square of the distance with proportionality coefficient gamma". My advice for you is to try develop a program in REPL fashion. Standard J package from Jsoftware has a good environment for that - you can launch a computation expressed in a line, see the result and if you aren't satisfied just copy the line, make changes and launch it again. Pretty convenient in comparison to classical save-compile-run-checkResults loop of, say, C++ development. One line is certainly easier to change 15 times before implementation when specification change.

by lucio 9y ago

avmich 9y ago

Thank you. My experience tells me another story. More code in terms of code size in bytes isn't always more complex. For example, sometimes one wants to emphasize the similarities and analogies and spends extra bytes to show that. But that in my experience is rare - and while it could be beneficial for a novice or for a substantially unfamiliar code, for good code if soon becomes burdensome. TotalAmount instead of x would probably drive crazy most mathematicians. Or most APL programmers. And probably most people demonstrating code on a whiteboard. Even in more mainstream languages like Clojure or Haskell a lot of variables are rather short; it's unfortunate that C++ with history of Hungarian notation, Java or C# have a habit to use long names. There is a reason why mathematical notation exist. F = gmM / (R^2) is often preferable to "force is proportional to both masses and to inverse of square of the distance with proportionality coefficient gamma". My advice for you is to try develop a program in REPL fashion. Standard J package from Jsoftware has a good environment for that - you can launch a computation expressed in a line, see the result and if you aren't satisfied just copy the line, make changes and launch it again. Pretty convenient in comparison to classical save-compile-run-checkResults loop of, say, C++ development. One line is certainly easier to change 15 times before implementation when specification change.