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Long live FORTRAN, the original BS-free programming language...sort of, if you ignore that whole messy global variables thing and the messy input/output stuff,
by jschveibinz 6y ago
Long live FORTRAN, the original BS-free programming language...sort of, if you ignore that whole messy global variables thing and the messy input/output stuff, and...ah never mind.
- tluyben2 6y agoWell, for absolute beginners and non software engineers globals are really a major part of the non-BS part. Just throw stuff in to little named boxes and use where ever. There are many jobs which require programming but not software engineers where I see globals all the time: data science (jupyter), trading (mt etc bots), accounting (excel and 4gl hell) etc. These folks just 'get shit done' and do not care (or know) about scope. Only us pro software engineers get upset about as we know this will hurt down the line.
- itwy 6y agoThe thing is, scope isolation takes 10x the time of hunting for rare and obvious bugs caused by global variable usage.
- tluyben2 6y agoAbsolutely. Still, many people cannot be bothered, and so find it BS.
- TheRealKing 6y agoThere are occasions where globals cannot be avoided.
- gregmac 6y agoThe methods easy for beginners to build small systems and the ways experts use to build complex systems are often so different as to be totally incompatible. Think about it: It's exceedingly rare to find a language/framework where an early step in learning doesn't include "ok, now throw out everything you've done, here's how we really build real things."