From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2008-06-01T18:39:32+09:00
Subject: Re: splitting help needed

On 31.05.2008 21:44, David A. Black wrote:
> 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.

Absolutely agree.

	robert