Re: Practical example of "Is Perl code maintainable"

There is "readable" and then there is "rambling and confusing"

I would argue that from a maintainability standpoint, your version may be too terse for a novice, while the original version may be too verbose and full of noise. Might i suggest something like...

sub file_mode {
  my ($file) = @_;
  -f $file or return -1;
  return (stat(_))[2];   # reuse stat from -f
}
[download]

...as the appropriate middle ground.

(NOTE: technically the two versions you posted aren't equivalent since yours only does one stat op and the original does two, but unless you expect the file perms to change after the "-f" test i'm guessing one stat is fine)

Comment on Re: Practical example of "Is Perl code maintainable" Download Code

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Re^2: Practical example of "Is Perl code maintainable" by xdg (Monsignor) on Aug 13, 2007 at 10:43 UTC
There is "readable" and then there is "rambling and confusing" ++ At the cost of using a module, I'd go a bit further if readability were really the goal. `use File::stat qw(stat); sub file_mode { my ($path) = @_; -f $path or return -1; my $stat = stat($path) or return -1; return $stat->mode; }` [download] That's assuming I didn't have permission to replace whatever was calling `file_mode` with File::stat in the first place. Something is calling `file_mode`, storing the result, checking for -1, etc., etc. That part is probably just as crufty. Update: ysth pointed out that I omitted '`-f`', so I re-wrote the code to be more explicit. -xdg Code written by xdg and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Practical example of "Is Perl code maintainable" by EvanCarroll (Chaplain) on Aug 13, 2007 at 22:42 UTC
Bravo, I just wanted to post the suggest for File::stat but you beat me to it. I would suggest you not return -1 for two things that could be a result of a vastly different failure, and I would instead `die` if I failed to stat the object. I also wouldn't import stat() as failing to include File::stat would surely result in a runtime error, and not the expected compile-time. (in addition two names for the same function has a potential to confuse, as does pollution is any form) Evan Carroll www.EvanCarroll.com	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Practical example of "Is Perl code maintainable" by xdg (Monsignor) on Aug 14, 2007 at 02:51 UTC
I would suggest... So would I, but I was just trying to duplicate the OP's example. -xdg Code written by xdg and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.	[reply]


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