RE: convert this code

[Joel Fritz <JFritz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually my instructor wasn't an idiot. He didn't write stuff like that.
Teaching was a sideline for him; his real income came from consulting.  He
tried to train his students to be able to read code like that because he
knew they were going to encounter it in the real world.

We agree more than you might think.  My rule of thumb is that terseness is a
waste of time when it compiles to the same thing as more readable more
verbose code.  A lot of times I'm willing to sacrifice performance for
maintainability--the order of magnitude rule kind of applies here.

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Pluta [mailto:joepluta@PlutaBrothers.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 5:35 PM
To: rpg400-l@midrange.com
Subject: RE: convert this code


> From: Joel Fritz
>
> This is a style issue, and I think you're going to get some argument. <g>

See my reply to Carel.  You may think it's a style issue, I don't.  Bad
coding is not "style", it's just bad programming.  But we can agree to
disagree.


> In my first C class in junior college, the instructor gave us expressions
> like this to evaluate on tests.  When I asked him about some of the
> convoluted stuff (much more obscure than these loop control statements) he
> threw at us he said something to the effect that a lot of people
> write code
> like this and you'll lose if you can't read it.  He especially
> liked things
> that combined multiple levels of indirection with blurring the distinction
> between logic and arithmetic.

Your instructor was an idiot.


> As a matter of personal taste, I don't care to write code like that, but I
> can understand how someone would. I don't think it usually has anything to
> do with job security--just a desire to cram as much as possible into as
> little space as you can.

I dinged people on their performance reviews if they insisted on coding that
way.  There is no place for it in a business environment.  You want to code
like that, do it at home.

Joe "Doesn't Feel Like Beating Around the Bush" Pluta

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