[ntp:questions] Unresolved Symbol

Danny Mayer mayer at ntp.isc.org
Wed Aug 22 03:27:51 UTC 2007


Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
> Maarten Wiltink wrote:
>> The code says that already. If you need to take your readers by the hand
>> and spoon-feed them the comments because the code itself is a bit chunky
>> and hard to swallow... get better readers.
> 
> Sometimes, there just aren't any "better readers" available!  Sometimes you
> just have to try to get along with what you've got.  In an ideal world, 
> everyone would be fluent in C, C++, Java, Perl and all the other latest 
> "gee whiz" languages.  Our world is far from ideal!

I agree with you. That's why i try to make crystal clear what I'm trying
to do. I write code in too many different languages to use any shortcut
notations. For example what does this if statement mean: if (foo)?
if foo where a boolean that would be simple. Unfortunately people use it
for integers, structures, pointers, etc. so it becomes very hard to
understand intent. The extra few seconds taken to add a condition (eg
foo != NULL) is worth while.

> If you practice what you preach, your code will probably die with you 
> because it will be easier to rewrite from scratch than to decode what 
> you wrote.

Agreed

Danny



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