blarson@skat.usc.edu (Bob Larson) (12/18/88)
Since this flamefest has come up again, I thought I would contribute something I consider more readable than the "standard" representation. Null statements are sometimes useful in C, mainly as loop bodies. Some people use semicolon on a line by itself for the null statment. I prefer a pair of braces: for(p = FIRST; p->next != NULL; p = p->next) ; looks strange to me, and takes two vertical lines. for(p = FIRST; p->next != NULL; p = p->next) {} uses a special two character sequence to denote the null statement, and takes only a single line. (Vertical space is limited on the terminals I use to read and edit programs, when comparing programs or looking at an insert file, only 11 lines of the function are visable.) -- Bob Larson Arpa: Blarson@Ecla.Usc.Edu blarson@skat.usc.edu Uucp: {sdcrdcf,cit-vax}!oberon!skat!blarson Prime mailing list: info-prime-request%ais1@ecla.usc.edu oberon!ais1!info-prime-request
gregg@ihlpb.ATT.COM (Wonderly) (12/20/88)
From article <14128@oberon.USC.EDU>, by blarson@skat.usc.edu (Bob Larson): ] Since this flamefest has come up again, I thought I would contribute ] something I consider more readable than the "standard" representation. ] Null statements are sometimes useful in C, mainly as loop bodies. ] ] Some people use semicolon on a line by itself for the null statment. ] I prefer a pair of braces: ] ] for(p = FIRST; p->next != NULL; p = p->next) ] ; ] ] looks strange to me, and takes two vertical lines. ] ] for(p = FIRST; p->next != NULL; p = p->next) {} I prefer for(p = FIRST; p->next != NULL; p = p->next) continue; which is completely obvious and not so strange... -- It isn't the DREAM that NASA's missing... DOMAIN: gregg@ihlpb.att.com It's a direction! UUCP: att!ihlpb!gregg
maart@cs.vu.nl (Maarten Litmaath) (12/21/88)
blarson@skat.usc.edu (Bob Larson) writes:
\(Vertical space is limited on the terminals I use to read and edit
\programs, when comparing programs or looking at an insert file, only
\11 lines of the function are visable.)
What kind of terminals are you using? Stony-Age 1(TM)?
--
fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, FNDELAY): |Maarten Litmaath @ VU Amsterdam:
let's go weepin' in the corner! |maart@cs.vu.nl, mcvax!botter!maart
md@sco.COM (Michael Davidson) (12/23/88)
In article <14128@oberon.USC.EDU> blarson@skat.usc.edu (Bob Larson) writes: > for(p = FIRST; p->next != NULL; p = p->next) {} >uses a special two character sequence to denote the null statement, >and takes only a single line. I much prefer to use continue as the null statement in the context of a loop body, ie: for (p = FIRST; p->next != NULL; p = p->next) continue;
bks@ALFA.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman) (12/29/88)
There are other stylistic questions apart from curly brace placement and degree of indentation. (By the way, source code control systems may thrash if cb and indent are used injudiciously %}.) If there are 100 functions in the program are there 100 source files? If not, what "rules" should be followed to chunk functions? (I used to put the I/O routines in files with the functions which needed them; then we started porting to odd ?NIX machines, VMS, and DOS-networks, now it seems "better" to hide all those #ifdef's in I/O dependent files?!). Does every source file have a declaration of *every* global (perhaps via #include "global.h"), or should it be done on a need-to-know basis at the top of the file? Or only in the body of the function which references it? Under what circumstances should sets of variables be glued together into structures? Should functions know about variables which they don't look at or modify? If 10% of the functions need to know about a variable, should it be made global? 50%? 90%? How are we to document soon to be heavily used code (i.e. sure to be modified after some experimentation)? If I find a nicely troff'ed document from 10/86 describing your program, but I see that 10 sccs entries (i.e. modification dates) have occurred since, should I read the document or studiously avoid it? " ... We might suggest that programmers adopt a systematic stategy when they need to understand a program. While reasonable, this is a totally impractical suggestion: a systematic stategy can only really be adopted when a program is smallish ... If a programmer attempted to use the systematic stategy on a realistically large program, with for example, 50,000 lines, the programmer would probalbly never get to the enhancement." Pinto & Soloway "Providing the Requisite Knowledge Via Software Documentation," Proceedings of CHI, 1988. ACM, New York, p.257. -Brad Sherman (bks@ALFA.Berkeley.Edu) ------------ "Hobgoblins have the consistency of small minds."
swilson%thetone@Sun.COM (Scott Wilson) (12/30/88)
In article <18621@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> bks@ALFA.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman) writes: > "Hobgoblins have the consistency of small minds." I believe the quote you're looking for is: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Attributed to Emerson's Self-Reliance and recently featured in Reebok commercials. (No, I didn't know where it came from, Bartlett's Book of Quotes comes in handy.) -- Scott Wilson arpa: swilson@sun.com Sun Microsystems uucp: ...!sun!swilson Mt. View, CA
bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker) (12/31/88)
In article <83297@sun.uucp> swilson@sun.UUCP (Scott Wilson) writes: +----------------------- | In article <18621@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> bks@ALFA.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman) writes: | > "Hobgoblins have the consistency of small minds." | | I believe the quote you're looking for is: | | "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." | | Attributed to Emerson's Self-Reliance and recently featured in Reebok | commercials. (No, I didn't know where it came from, Bartlett's Book of | Quotes comes in handy.) | | Scott Wilson arpa: swilson@sun.com | Sun Microsystems uucp: ...!sun!swilson | Mt. View, CA +----------------------- Let's get it straight once and for all please. The One True Quote is: "A foolish mind is the consistency of little hobgoblins." which is attributed to Gulliver. Giggle, -- _ _/\ Bruce Becker Toronto, Ont. \`o O| Internet: bdb@becker.UUCP, bruce@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu \(")/ BitNet: BECKER@HUMBER.BITNET ---mm-U-mm--- "The OSF is suffering from Penix envy" - Rocky Raccoon
bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) (01/01/89)
"A little foolishness consistently gobbles mine hob." -- -- bob, mon (bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu) -- RAMontante, Computer Science Dept., Indiana University, Bloomington -- "In this position, the skier is flying in a complete stall..."
wald-david@CS.YALE.EDU (david wald) (01/04/89)
What's a little more net volume? In article <190@becker.UUCP> bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker) writes: >In article <83297@sun.uucp> swilson@sun.UUCP (Scott Wilson) writes: >| In article <18621@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> bks@ALFA.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman) writes: >| > "Hobgoblins have the consistency of small minds." >| >| I believe the quote you're looking for is: >| >| "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." >> -- Emerson's Self-Reliance > > "A foolish mind is the consistency of little hobgoblins." > -- Gulliver (quotes reformatted) "A consistent hobgoblin minds little fools." -- A foolish hobgoblin with a consistent little mind ============================================================================ David Wald wald-david@yale.UUCP waldave@yalevm.bitnet wald-david@cs.yale.edu "A monk, a clone and a ferengi decide to go bowling together..." ============================================================================
al@gtx.com (Alan Filipski) (01/04/89)
In article <83297@sun.uucp> swilson@sun.UUCP (Scott Wilson) writes: ->In article <18621@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> bks@ALFA.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman) writes: ->> "Hobgoblins have the consistency of small minds." -> ->I believe the quote you're looking for is: -> -> "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." -> ->Attributed to Emerson's Self-Reliance and recently featured in Reebok Are you sure? I could swear it was something like "awful itch consists in sieze daub gobble and afflict dumb hinds" I think it's an anti-hunting slogan. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ( Alan Filipski, GTX Corp, 8836 N. 23rd Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85021, USA ) ( {allegra,decvax,hplabs,amdahl,nsc}!sun!sunburn!gtx!al (602)870-1696 ) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "consistently gobbling little minds is a foolish hobby"