Re^2: Free Perl IDE for a begginer

[karpatov]

Thanks for reply. In fact I used print(variable) system in R (before I found Sci-views), but I was always craving for the possiblity to have a graphical interface allowing to follow values of selected variables line by line - usually the error was caused by some problem well before the line causing program crashed. So having IDE with this capabilities would be nice.

There is no danger that I would become a programming expert enjoying the beauty of the solutions. Too late for me. For me it will be always a mean to get the things done. Is the code ugly? Is it slower than necessary? I don`t care, it works and I can use the output for solving the relevant biology. Are there some general programming tips for the Seekers Of The Way Of The Lowest Resistance like me :-)?

karpatov

[misc]

I'm no expert.
I just have fun with programming..

But, ugly code is awful.
And definitely not the way of the lowest resitance.

Why ?
I believe you can do fast and simple hacks - which will work and do what you want.
But, if you e.g. instead of writing some functions, modules, .. , just hack a script with a few hundred lines without a structure at all, it will work now - but it's extremely hard to maintain such a thing.

So instead of thinking about a concept - which needs some time -, and having the experience that it's possible to materialize your thoughts in a program, you just hack it down. And if there are needed changes in the script (as always), the script will get uglier and uglier - until you don't know anymore at all what the heck is happening in your program. Which is quite frustrating, time expensive, and you'll need a debugger(.-)).

On the other hand I've always made the experience that some thoughts about the structure before starting to code pay out.
It's a great feeling to me to find solutions - and you'll be able to change your scripts with much less work.

So I'd like to propose structured and well thought solutions - Although perhaps this could seem like unneccessary work

Have fun :-)