MathGroup Archive 2003

[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Search the Archive

Re: Opinions about the "Oneliners"

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg40317] Re: Opinions about the "Oneliners"
  • From: Jens-Peer Kuska <kuska at informatik.uni-leipzig.de>
  • Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2003 04:50:57 -0500 (EST)
  • Organization: Universitaet Leipzig
  • References: <b690h1$l7u$1@smc.vnet.net>
  • Reply-to: kuska at informatik.uni-leipzig.de
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Hi,

> 
> But to be honest: Isn't it a torture trying to understand the "how does it
> work" of a oneliner written by some else?

If it was hard to program, it should be hard to understand ...

> 
> Is it useful to use //TreeForm to visualize the inner structure of a
> oneliner (where is the "inner beginning")

No, it is useful to split up the nested function calls an to see
what every step does.

> 
> The vast majority of oneliners presented here lack on comments.

A one-liner with comments is longer than one line and is not
a one-liner any more.

> Despite of
> the wonderful constructs, is this good programming style?

hmm

"Real Programmers don't need comments-- the code is obvious."

it is stil an open task to rewrite 
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/real.programmers.html
for Mathematica programmers.

It is a question of you personal style, how many comments
you need to understand the code in 2-3 years.

In the most cases the authors have no idea "how skilled is
the questioner". If the questioner does not understand the
answer, he can ask again or he can try to understand the
solution by its own and learn a lot ...

If you look on the threads with one-liners, it is seldom,
that the questioner ask back for an explanation.
In the most cases the regulars in the group start a
discussion "how can the code be optimized" or
"which one-liner is the faster". So, it seems, that
there is a little need for larger comments.

Regards
  Jens


  • Prev by Date: AW: Need a nice way to do this
  • Next by Date: Re: Re: Need a nice way to do this
  • Previous by thread: Re: Opinions about the "Oneliners"
  • Next by thread: Re: Opinions about the "Oneliners"