Re: [MacPerl] Does Style Count?

[Vicki Brown <vlb@cfcl.com>]

At 19:02 -0800 10/28/98, Jon Jacob and Joetta Moon wrote:
> Part of the beauty of Perl, be it MacPerl or otherwise, is
> that it can be very powerful, yet easy to understand.

Some people would disagree right here... ;-)

> I would like to see more people discussion on stylistic issues.
> We could all use the help.

If you have a copy of Programming Perl (aka The Camel book), read chapter 8.
Programming With Style begins on p. 546 (in my edition).
The sections on Efficiency (pp 537 - 546 are also enlightening.
If you come from another language environment, familiarize yourself with
the common goofs, traps and pitfalls outlined on pp. 528 - 537.

* If you don't have a copy of Programming Perl (and you intend to write,
read, or maintain a lot of Perl code), GET a copy of Programming Perl.

>  That being said....
>
> I hate the tertiary operation!  Any operator that you can't spell, must
> be suspect ; )

Um, that lets out a _lot_ of Perl...  How do you spell ++ or == ?  or @_ ?

In any event, I'm afraid I must agree with Chris :-)

<opinion>
?: (pronounced question-colon) is well-known from C and a _very useful
operator_ in Perl. It is also fairly well-used. It will not go away because
some people don't like it.  You don't have to use it in your code (you
don't have to use any specific construct in your code) but other people
will use it in their code. If you plan to spend much of your time modifying
other people's code to remove popular constructs and idioms that you don't
happen to like, you will be spending more time modifying than learning.
</opinion>

(You'd have loved the recent Perl 5 Porters discussions related to the
propossed ?? operator :-)

- Vicki
---
Vicki Brown, vlb@cfcl.com        |\      _,,,---,,_
Journeyman Sourceror      ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_
Scripts & Philtres             |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'
http://www.cfcl.com/~vlb      '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)
P.O. Box 1269 San Bruno, CA  94066

***** Want to unsubscribe from this list?
***** Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch