[ale] perl, python, C, C++ old code readability

[Joseph A Knapka]

"James P. Kinney III" wrote:
> 
> I would posit that one the biggest drawbacks to Perl is that it is
> clearly an evolved language. Its beginnings were simple enough. But as
> more ways to use it were found, it grew in complexity. It is very easy
> to write unintelligible code in Perl. It is also easy to not write that
> way. The moniker "Swiss army chainsaw" is not a joke! But this "there is
> more than one way to do it" is a main cause for obfuscation in Perl.

Here's a Python Enhancement Proposal posted to the Anygui
development list recently:

---begin quote---
From: Greg Ewing <greg at cosc.canterbury.ac.nz>
To: ale at ale.org
To: devel at anygui.org

Laura Creighton <lac at strakt.com>:

> Never discount the 'showing off that I know how to use slice
> is cool' factor. 
> There are days I truly wish there really was ONLY ONE WAY
> TO DO IT.

     PEP 9002: Reducing number of ways to copy a sequence

ABSTRACT

   This PEP proposes modifications to the language and standard
   library to reduce the variability in the way sequence copying
   operations are expressed.

MOTIVATION

   Laura Creighton thinks there are too many ways to copy 
   a list.

DETAILED PROPOSAL

   The following changes will be made:

   (1) Attempting to use a slice operation to retrieve the
   entire contents of a sequence, or to apply the builtin
   list() type constructor or the copy.copy() function to a
   sequence [see note 1], will cause the raising of a 
   ThisWayOfDoingItNoLongerSupportedError exception.

   (2) The compiler will be made to detect and reject any
   apparent attempts to copy a sequence using a loop,
   list comprehension or recursive function. The exception 
   NaughtyProgrammerTryingToDoItHisOrHerOwnWayError will be
   raised.

   (3) The builtin sequence types will have added to them a
   new method makeacopyofthistheoneandonlytrueway(), which
   will return a copy of the sequence. A new builtin type
   'sequence' supplying this functionality will be provided
   for use as a base class by user-defined classes.

NOTES

   [1] Determination of whether a given object is a sequence
   will be by means of heuristics such as testing for the
   presence of __len__, __getitem__ and __getslice__ methods.
   If these tests are inconclusive, the system will automatically
   send an email to Laura Creighton asking whether the operation 
   should be allowed, with a pickle of the offending object together
   with relevant excerpts from the source code attached, and
   await a reply in a suitably standardised format. Although
   this will introduce some delay into running programs, it
   is believed this will be a small price to pay for the
   benefits accrued in terms of increased code clarity and
   uniformity.

Discussion invited.

---end quote---

Cheers,

-- Joe
"I should like to close this book by sticking out any part of my neck
 which is not yet exposed, and making a few predictions about how the
 problem of quantum gravity will in the end be solved."
 --- Physicist Lee Smolin, "Three Roads to Quantum Gravity"

---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.