[ale] Any language (wuz: Assembly Language?)

[Michael B. Trausch]

On 10/28/2013 01:41 PM, JD wrote:
> It is possible to create crap code in any language, of that I am certain.  Some
> of my recent perl stuff is just a gorgeous as the highly reviewed code that
> introduced those catastrophic bugs. Being pretty does not guaranty bug-free. I'd
> submit that pretty code makes finding bugs harder ... sometimes.

I suppose that depends on how we define "pretty".

I define "pretty" as:

  * Following a consistent code style throughout an entire source file.
  * Using proper visual cues to indicate program flow; in languages
    where brackets are used, indentation must follow the flow as
    indicated by the brackets.
  * Functions do One Thing and Do It Well^(TM).
  * With some exceptions (e.g., state machine implementations are a
    prominent example), functions should be limited to less than about
    20--30 lines of code, and no more than three or so levels of
    indentation.  If you're doing more than that, break it apart.  This
    makes it a lot more testable anyway.  Put another way, functions
    must be short enough to be "obviously correct"---and should not be
    "clever" unless a previously obviously-correct and tested
    implementation is being optimized.
  * Speaking of testing, test, test, test.  I think that testing is so
    important that I think on future projects I'm going to consider
    writing the tests themselves to be non-billable time, so that there
    is no objection to them being done.  If not every line and every
    branch is tested both for success and failure cases, it's /broken/.

     --- Mike

-- 

	Michael B. Trausch

President, *Naunet Corporation*
? (678) 287-0693 x130 or (855) NAUNET-1 x130
FAX: (678) 783-7843

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