Re: Re: Re: Some suggestions on coding style

True. For a standalone script, it's always nice to see some globally used parameters at the top for easy customization/configuration.

I do the follwing in such cases...

If the variables are "configuration" type of variables, I would use constants, not plain scalars. I feel much better in knowing that most ( if not all ) of the globally accessible variables would be visually different from other local variables:

   #!perl

   use constant LOG_DIRECTORY => '/foo/bar/baz';
   use constant SOME_URL => 'http://baboon.com';

   main();

   sub main {
     ....
     some_random_function( LOG_DIRECTORY, $local_variable );
   }
[download]

Comment on Re: Re: Re: Some suggestions on coding style - a chance to critique Download Code

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Re4: Some suggestions on coding style - a chance to critique by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Jul 01, 2002 at 18:55 UTC
using constant is a very good thing to do. However, if you don't know what constant is doing, you can be very surpsised. `use constant LOG_DIRECTORY => '/foo/bar/baz'; # Equivalent to sub LOG_DIRECTORY () { '/foo/bar/baz' }` [download] The most obvious problem is interpolation in double-quoted strings. Similarly, you can't use LOG_DIRECTORY as the key to a hash, because it's not a C-style preprocessor declaration, but a function declaration. Just, be careful and know what is happening under the hood. ------ We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age. Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.	[reply] [d/l]
Re5: Some suggestions on coding style - a chance to critique by blakem (Monsignor) on Jul 01, 2002 at 21:03 UTC
Doh! Nevermind.... ~~I can see the interpolation problem, but whats this about not using a constant as a hash key?~~ `#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use constant LOG_DIRECTORY => '/foo/bar/baz'; my %hash; $hash{LOG_DIRECTORY} = 'happy'; print "log directory ${\LOG_DIRECTORY} is $hash{LOG_DIRECTORY}\n"; __END__ produces: log directory /foo/bar/baz is happy` ~~[download]~~ -Blake	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re4: Some suggestions on coding style - a chance to critique by Anonymous Monk on Jul 01, 2002 at 22:14 UTC
Try printing out the keys of %hash. You just assigned the value "happy" to the key "LOG_DIRECTORY". To use the constant LOG_DIRECTORY as the key you need to explicitly use it as a function.	[reply]


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Re: Re: Re: Some suggestions on coding style - a chance to critique