Subj : Re: Syntax, style, the infinite monkey theorum and coding
To   : comp.programming
From : Chris Sonnack
Date : Mon Aug 22 2005 12:20 pm

gswork@mailcity.com writes:

>> 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 70 characters per line, not counting whitespace)?
> 
> I like the idea that a condition can be seven lines long!  Now
> that's a condition!

I wonder if there wouldn't have been some way to abstract away some
of the predicates into functions.  Even if there were a lot of
predicates, I'd almost be tempted to do something like:

	object Temp
		var  p1 = some_long_variable_name
		var  p2 = another_long_variable_name
		--etc
	end object

	while Test_Predicates(Temp)
		--do loop stuff
	end while

	--somewhere else
	function Test_Predicates(object T)
		--test the predicates
	end function


Or the more OOPLish:

	object Temp
		var  p1 = some_long_variable_name
		var  p2 = another_long_variable_name
		--etc

		function Test()
			--test the predicates
		end function
	end object

	while Temp.Test()
		--do loop stuff
	end while


Factoring the while expression into a function (and sub functions
if it makes sense) probably makes the thing a lot easier to
understand, which makes it easier to maintain and troubleshoot.

The flip side is there is *some* performance penalty, but that
may or may not be important.  That requirement needs to be set
against the requirement for writing maintainable code (which is
in my mind always a very high one).


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