Roy Smith <r...@panix.com> writes:
> Also, the purpose of source code is to transmit information (to both
> the compiler and to human readers).
And the relative importance of readability for those two purposes is
often misunderstood.
Composing source code so that the *machine* will understand it is one
thing, and can be unambiguously verified.
Composing the same source code so that its meaning will be clearly
transmitted to *other humans* is quite another matter: certainly more
difficult, and arguably far more important:
“Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally
for machines to execute.”
—Abelson & Sussman, _Structure and Interpretation of Computer
Programs_
> Sometimes, the real enjoyment (in literature) comes in figuring out
> what the author really meant.
Right. Unlike that kind of writing, in functional code like a computer
program, ambiguity of meaning is a curse.
Programmers, if you feel the urge to be subtle and clever and nuanced,
take up poetry or literature as a separate pursuit. In your program
source code, please be as straightforward and unambiguous and
predictable as possible.
--
\ “Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not |
`\ happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these |
_o__) defects.” —Mark Twain, _A Horse's Tale_ |
Ben Finney
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
