Re^2: Perl oddities

Which is more important - do_something() or $condition? The important bit should be left-most in indentation. I have often found

if (really_long_and_boring_condition)
  do_something_useful()
[download]

to be much harder to read in C. Plus, people seem to feel that just cause you don't have braces means you don't have to follow proper indentation practices. (Not that braces always help, but it allows me to bounce on % in (g)vi(m).)

Personally, I prefer the following alternatives:

do_something_useful()
    if really_long_and_boring_condition;

# Or ...

really_long_and_boring_condition
    && do_something_useful();
[download]

Depending on which is more important to understanding the program's flow.

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Re^3: Perl oddities by DentArthurDent (Monk) on Mar 01, 2005 at 21:28 UTC
I would argue that if the condition is "really long and boring", then it is more important to have braces and whitespace so it is easier to see where the actual action being taken is at a glance. The only one you mention that could work for me is: `do_something_useful() if really_long_and_boring_condition;` [download] Unfortunately, that's at the expense of putting the cart before the horse IMHO. The action doesn't matter if the condition is not satisfied. ---- My mission: To boldy split infinitives that have never been split before!	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Perl oddities by PhilHibbs (Hermit) on Mar 21, 2005 at 17:39 UTC
When I see "`die if (long && complicated condition)`" I know that I can stop reading the condition, because it's an error check and therefore probably not interesting to me. Or, if it says "`$name = $1 if /long and complicated regex/;`" then I can skip over the regex because I know what it's doing.	[reply]


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