I strive to write self documenting code, but I also like to fill in with helpful comments. When I use a code snippet that I had to look up, I usually put a comment in explaining it. This leads to the funny situation of going back to maintain a bit of code written months prior, and finding comments like, "@_ is the input array to the subroutine" just before a line like " my ( $name, $rank, $serialnumber ) = @_;". I didn't know that when I wrote it, but I do now. Someone new to perl will appreciate that line when they have to work on the code, but an old timer would think it was written by an idiot. (No, not an idiot. A newbie... but sometimes we mistake ignorance for idiocy)
But yes, writting self documenting code is very important. Thats why I use constant.pm instead of writing the routines myself and why I didn't use a regex in my answer to One for the regexp fans
-
Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
-
Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
<code> <a> <b> <big>
<blockquote> <br /> <dd>
<dl> <dt> <em> <font>
<h1> <h2> <h3> <h4>
<h5> <h6> <hr /> <i>
<li> <nbsp> <ol> <p>
<small> <strike> <strong>
<sub> <sup> <table>
<td> <th> <tr> <tt>
<u> <ul>
-
Snippets of code should be wrapped in
<code> tags not
<pre> tags. In fact, <pre>
tags should generally be avoided. If they must
be used, extreme care should be
taken to ensure that their contents do not
have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent
horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor
intervention).
-
Want more info? How to link
or How to display code and escape characters
are good places to start.
|
