(Maclir)Re: (dws)Re: Perverse Unreadable Code

[Maclir]

There are advantages in the:

  if ( $debug ) {
      print "About to fetch $url\n";
  }

approach, mainly because if I want to throw a few more statements into the "if" block, I can do it simply.

I also find having the code structured that way indicates clearly that a conditional is involved, and by seeing what the condition is, it can often provide an indication of why something is being done. For example:

  if ( $account_balance < '100.00' ) {
      print "Don't pay the loser any interest.\n";
  }

indicates we are dealing with low value accounts.

But then again, we are talking subjective matters here. An alternative way, and in my mind just as readible, is:

  &calculte_interest($account_number) unless ($account_balance < '100.
+00' );

As a side line, I recall being told once "Fortran programmers can write fortran programs in any language."