From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2006-04-06T06:34:12+09:00
Subject: Re: best practices

On Thu, 6 Apr 2006, Jean-Charles Carelli wrote:

> I'm working my way through the Pickaxe book and I have a question regarding 
> syntax and best practices.
>
> Example from page 64
>
>    # 1 Book example
>    songs.append(Song.new(title, name, mins.to_i * 60 + secs.to_i))
>
>
>   # 2 Alternate version.
>    duration = mins.to_i * 60 + secs.to_i
>    songs.append(Song.new(title, name, duration))
>
>
> Version 1 is very concise but harder to read. Ruby is very intuitive but I 
> find the second example easier to read.  What is everyone else doing?

sometimes i warp a bunch of lines into one, but in production code i tend to
do this:

   duration = mins.to_i * 60 + secs.to_i
   song = Song.new title, name
   songs.append song

otherwise it can be difficult to interpret stack traces with line numbers.
consider

   songs.append(Song.new(title, name, duration))

this can throw in Song.new or append - but both are on the same line.  using a
duration tmp var is also very self doccumenting.

i guess it all just depends on the application and context of the code being
written.

regards.

-a
-- 
be kind whenever possible... it is always possible.
- h.h. the 14th dali lama