Subj : Re: Syntax, style, the infinite monkey theorum and coding
To   : comp.programming
From : Gerry Quinn
Date : Mon Aug 22 2005 12:42 pm

In article <1124699428.796351.185650@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, 
gswork@mailcity.com says...
> Ed Prochak wrote:
> > gsw...@mailcity.com wrote:

> > how about a C program with a seven page while() loop where the
> > condition on the while() loop was seven full lines long (where full
> > means about 70characters per line, not counting whitespace)? Sorry I
> > don't have the code available. That was at a job nearly twenty years
> > ago. It was written by a contractor that the company respected and was
> > considered a great programmer. Needless to say I did not share that
> > opinion when I was assigned to maintain and debug this beast.
> 
> I like the idea that a condition can be seven lines long!  Now that's a
> condition!

I can imagine that being a viable style in some cases, i.e. where there 
are several independent conditions that break the loop and each needs a 
comment:

while( 	condition1		// comment
		&& condition2	// comment 
		&& condition3	// comment 
		)
{
	// do stuff
}

It's the multi-page block that seems more problematic.

- Gerry Quinn

.