From: Rik Hemsley <rik@...>
Date: 2002-01-02T03:45:52+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:29977] Re: Ruby/Python: Software Engineering

#if noone
> Software Engineering Practices/Methodologies include:
> 
>   Designed from the "ground up" for readability
> 
>     Enforced indention (you indent your own code I bet)

I don't mind working with different indentation styles, as long as there
is a 'modeline' for my editor at the start/end of the file, so that I
don't have to conform manually.

>     { @No #line $noise }

On 'line noise' - I am personally very grateful for Ruby's 'line noise'
because it makes code _more_ readable in practice.

I write most of my code in C++, where member variables can look like
'm_variable', '_variable', 'variable_', 'm_pVariable', 'variable', 
or some other random variation, depending on programmer preference.

This isn't a problem if there is only one programmer or all programmers
agree, but when you're working with code from many people, written at
different times, you end up with a mess, and readability suffers.

Because there is such a small set of symbols needed for daily use
(mostly '@', sometimes '$' or ':') I have no problem learning what they
mean.

Enforced naming conventions (e.g. Ruby's Constant vs. variable) are
great too. I don't see why people should mind being forced to conform to
some simple conventions, even if they don't match preference, when the
advantages in code readability are so obvious.

Rik