On 08/19/21 09:38, Ranier Vilela wrote: >> 2. Declarations are closer to the actual usage. This is advised by the >> "Code Complete" book [2] and has the following advantages: >> a. This limits variable scope to what is necessary. Which in turn makes >> the mental model you have to keep of a function when reading the code >> simpler. >> b. In most cases it allows you to see the the type of a variable >> without needing to go to the top of the function. >> 3. You can do input checking and assertions at the top of the function, >> instead of having to put declarations in front of it. This makes it clear >> which invariants hold for the function. (as seen in the example above and >> the changes for pg_file_rename[3])
I'm in sympathy with all of those points. I've never believed that the arbitrary separation of declaration from use that was forced by C < 99 made anything more readable. If the project were started now from scratch, I would be all in favor of declaring at first use. But I think Tom's concern about backpatching hazards may carry a lot of weight in practice. >> It uses a Perl regex to search and replace! (obligatory jokes at the >> bottom of the email) However, even if such an idea were to get the green light, I think I would take the obligatory regex jokes seriously, and instead use something like srcML [0] and do the analysis and modification on proper parse trees. Regards, -Chap [0] https://www.srcml.org/about.html
