Re: Re: IYHO, what do you consider good code?

[helgi]

Yes, but with proper naming conventions, most of this comment is redundant.

If your subroutine were something like this:

sub get_build_from_server
{
 my ($server_name,$password,$path_to_build) = @_;
 # do stuff here
 my $success = parse_build_name($path_to_build);
 if ($success) {return 0;} else { return 1; }
}

--
Regards,
Helgi Briem
helgi DOT briem AT decode DOT is

[logan]

Sure, for a simple sub like the one I used as an example. But that's like saying we wouldn't need a big table of contents if only people wouldn't write long books or if people wrote clearly we wouldn't need synopsis or abstracts. Sure, it probably isn't necessary to have a 6 line header for a 6 line sub, but if the sub runs to 20-30 lines, I'd rather have the header.

The idea is that I'm trying to make it easy to follow program flow. Two years later I want to be able to look at it and instantly see what it does and how it should be called.

-Logan
"What do I want? I'm an American. I want more."

[adrianh]

if the sub runs to 20-30 lines, I'd rather have the header

Obviously if it works for you...

However, if it were me and the sub ran to 20-30 lines that I couldn't understand without half a dozen lines of comments I'd refactor it into a larger number of smaller subs - each of which I could understand without half a dozen lines of comments.

I doing code maintenance I tend to ignore comments, since I find that they're out-of-sync with the code half of the time.