Re: Variable names
Re: Variable names
- Subject: Re: Variable names
- From: "Stockly, Ed" <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:08:29 -0600
- Acceptlanguage: en-US
- Thread-topic: Variable names
> And that's all I have to say about that ;-)
Oh goody, that means I get to have the last word!
> 1. Yes, if you live in a vacuum and noone is EVER likely to read your script,
you're not ever going to post it on this forum for help and you aren't going to
read your script five minute, or five days or five months later, and you don't
write anything complicated enough in which you might have to fix errors, then
communication doesn't matter, and you could call all of your variable and
handler names x1, x2, x3, x4 etc. I still think it's unnecessarily obfuscated,
but no harm done since noone will ever have to understand what you wrote.
That is a good argument for following a disciplined approach to
scripting/programming, but I've noticed that some of the most advanced and
experienced scripters on this list will post quick solutions (shopping list)
with non descriptive variable names, even single character names when not
appropriate, to answer questions or make a point.
I agree with Shane, no harm in that.
> 2. Yes, the goal is TOTAL minimized time.
That's a goal, not always the most important goal. There are often times
when a scripter is working under a deadline and will have more time later to
refine the script, but the immediate goal is to make something work before
the presses run.
Another goal is to make the script readable and easy to understand, and I
believe using I or x or a, b, c properly helps more than descriptive
variable names.
> But I expect that in almost all cases a more clearly written script will pay
for itself 100 or 1000 fold.
That might be overstating it. Plus, many of the "shopping list" type scripts
could be just a few lines long, and don't take any great effort to decipher,
no matter what the variable names are.
But the issue goes beyond whether clearly written scripts are more valuable.
The other issue is whether following the guidelines on single digit variable
names make a script less clear.
> 3. Most arguments for short non-desriptive variable names seem to quote a line
and say that in that context it's perfectly clear what the variable does. But
my point is that a descriptive variable name makes it clear on EVERY line what
the variable does.
But that's not always needed, and not always helpful.
Tell page x of document 1
Set text of paragraph y to myData
End
In most cases where I use the single digit name I use the variable at the
start of the loop and never again. But even if it is used deeper in the
loop I know it will always be an integer and used to reference a particular
class of object.
However, if I were doing a workflow and paragraph x of a document would get
the value from row x of a spread sheet, and field x from a database, or some
similar complexity, then yes I would use a more descriptive variable name.
ES
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