From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2008-06-01T04:44:24+09:00
Subject: Re: splitting help needed

Hi --

On Sun, 1 Jun 2008, Robert Klemme wrote:

> On 31.05.2008 16:45, Rick DeNatale wrote:
>> On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 8:11 AM, David A. Black <dblack@rubypal.com> wrote:
>
>>> For the first RubyConf, we were going to have a "Code De-Obfuscation"
>>> contest, since the idea of an obfuscation contest in Ruby seemed so
>>> against the grain of what people loved about the language. We got as
>>> far as getting some obfuscated contributions, ripe for de-obfuscation
>>> (including one from Dave Thomas), but unfortunately the timing of that
>>> conference -- October 2001 -- sapped some of our time and energy and
>>> that contest was one of the things that fell by the wayside.
>> 
>> That sounds like a great idea.  I wish that there were some kind of
>> anti-code-golf contest, where the objective was maximum
>> clarity/expressiveness rather than compactness.  The problem is that
>> it's impossible to measure the former objectively, compared to 32 vs.
>> 33 character comparisons.
>
> That's true.  I usually try to compact code in order to increase readability 
> and often also efficiency because I do not find shortness a value in itself. 
> As always it's a question of balance.

I do think that one of the great things about Ruby is that, to a
remarkable degree, code becomes *clearer* as it becomes smaller. Not,
of course, when it gets into real golf territory (see my last post) --
but over a pretty wide range.


David

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