From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 10ad19,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid10ad19,public X-Google-Thread: 1073c2,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid1073c2,public X-Google-Thread: 11440e,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid11440e,public X-Google-Thread: 101deb,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid101deb,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 107a89,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid107a89,public X-Google-Thread: 10a146,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid10a146,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-06-05 05:41:28 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!btnet-peer0!btnet-peer!btnet!nntp.news.xara.net!xara.net!gxn.net!server6.netnews.ja.net!server4.netnews.ja.net!server2.netnews.ja.net!newshost.central.susx.ac.uk!news.bton.ac.uk!not-for-mail From: John English Newsgroups: comp.lang.ruby,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.awk,comp.lang.clarion,comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.lang.pl1,comp.lang.vrml Subject: Re: Long names are doom ? Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2001 12:42:50 +0100 Organization: University of Brighton Message-ID: <3B1CC5B9.44776BE1@brighton.ac.uk> References: <3B0DBD4A.82943473@my-deja.net> <3B0DD011.88FCD00E@acm.org> <83WP6.3874$yc6.728572@news.xtra.co.nz> <3B1411D0.3AAF42E7@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com> <9f2nks$ibd$0@dosa.alt.net> <3B177EF7.2A2470F4@facilnet.es> <9f8b7b$h0e$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9f8r0i$lu3$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9fgagu$6ae$1@nh.pace.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: pc2je.it.bton.ac.uk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: saturn.bton.ac.uk 991741648 16800 193.62.183.154 (5 Jun 2001 11:47:28 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@bton.ac.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 5 Jun 2001 11:47:28 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en-gb] (Win95; U) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ruby:10383 comp.lang.ada:8145 comp.lang.awk:2760 comp.lang.clarion:21092 comp.lang.java.programmer:73640 comp.lang.pl1:754 comp.lang.vrml:3485 Date: 2001-06-05T11:47:28+00:00 List-Id: Roedy Green wrote: > There is a general rule though, that a terser program makes it easier > to see the big picture. You can get more of it on screen at once. > Use of smaller methods so can easily see the whole flow of a method in > a single screen full, without getting bogged in too much detail, > really helps. I agree that you should be able to see a whole unit (method, function, whatever) on a single screen/page, but making the code "terser" just means you can get twice as much stuff in the same space, so there's twice as much complexity to absorb and it's twice as cryptic too. The answer isn't terseness, it's abstraction. It's about breaking things into bite-sized modules, not trying to cram as much stuff as possible into an arbitrarily-chosen amount of space. Otherwise, you could achieve a similar effect by removing unnecessary white space (i.e. indentation and line breaks), which otherwise "wastes" about 50% of the available screen area in most programs... ----------------------------------------------------------------- John English | mailto:je@brighton.ac.uk Senior Lecturer | http://www.comp.it.bton.ac.uk/je Dept. of Computing | ** NON-PROFIT CD FOR CS STUDENTS ** University of Brighton | -- see http://burks.bton.ac.uk -----------------------------------------------------------------