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
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oberon!ais1!info-prime-requestgregg@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!greggmaart@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!maartmd@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"