Over the last few days, I've been doing a project that is forcing me take a new harder look at everything I've written: code and markup. One of the items which came up in my audit was a little subroutine which takes a number (usually scalar(@list)) and returns how many columns the list would be in according to exponential calculations. The default behavior of this subroutine is to return a word number not an integer. When I looked at it again, a voice in the back of my head told me the subroutine should return the integer by default because integers are more useful. I also had the sinking feeling someone here probably pointed that out to me, and I ignored it. I wanted what I wanted, and no one was going to make me change my mind at the time. I had to change my own mind and pay the price for it later.

So, this is my confession. I am a doofus. I am hard headed and obstinate when it comes to attaining my short term goals. I crawled into my shell to avoid any good advice about coding for the future.

So here is my old sub...

use Lingua::EN::Inflect qw(NUMWORDS);

sub get_columns {
  my ($max_cols, $amount, $number) = @_;
  if ($amount <= $max_cols ** 2) {
    for my $num (1..$max_cols) {
      if ($amount >= $num ** 2 && $amount < ($num + 1) ** 2) {
        return $number && $number =~ /^[yt1]/ ? $num : NUMWORDS($num);
      }
    }
  }
  else {
    return $number && $number =~ /^[yt1]/ ? $max_cols : NUMWORDS($max_
+cols);
  }
}
[download]

And the new more useful sub...

use Lingua::EN::Inflect qw(NUMWORDS);

sub get_columns {
  my ($max_cols, $amount, $word) = @_;
  if ($amount <= $max_cols ** 2) {
    for my $num (1..$max_cols) {
      if ($amount >= $num ** 2 && $amount < ($num + 1) ** 2) {
        return $word && $word =~ /^[yt1]/ ? NUMWORDS($num) : $num;
               ############################################# Delete to
+ get rid of Lingua::EN::Inflect
      }
    }
  }
  else {
    return $word && $word =~ /^[yt1]/ ? $NUMWORDS($max_cols) : $max_co
+ls;
           ################################################### Delete 
+to get rid of Lingua::EN::Inflect
  }
}
[download]

I feel bad for only now realizing returning a integer by default would be more useful than returning a number word. I think I spoke aloud when I called myself a doofus for returning a number word by default.

I've been doing a lot of rethinks lately. Some of my "utility" scripts seem useless in a broader sense.

The great advice I got from Monks long ago is finally settling into my head. I hope I am better with future advice, but that is to be seen.