[ic] how to write code

Grant interchange-users@icdevgroup.org
Thu Mar 6 12:09:01 2003


>On Wed, 2003-03-05 at 16:16, Grant wrote:
>> I'm going to go over all of my code soon and clean it up, 
>> but I'd like to have some idea of the way things *should* be done
>> before I do.
>> 
>> - Grant
>
>It is difficult to go over all details to keep in mind for 'clean'
>programming, but generally when writing any type of code it helps to
>think of a program as building blocks. Each block has a functionality,
>producing a predictable result based on the input. The first thing each
>block should do is check if the input given to it makes sense.
>
>As you already have written some code, probably you can identify several
>blocks that have the same function. Try to combine these into
>'programming language' functions (by making new usertags or creating
>library functions), this will allow you to eliminate redundancy by
>taking out double copies of your code, reducing maintenance.
>
>Finally, when working with Interchange, I feel it's almost vital to know
>at least a bit of Perl. I find it helps me solve problems that ITL has
>difficulty handling. It is possible to write pretty cryptic code with
>perl, and I'm sure real perl gurus can write complete web content
>management systems in a single line of code, but you don't *have* to
>write that way. Keeping things tidy is usually a good idea.
>
>There is more to it than I can tell in this short message, but a lot
>comes down to discipline in following (your own set of) best practices.
>Follow the road that consistently gives you the best results.
>
>Good luck!

Thank you, that does help a lot.

- Grant