From: Paul Brannan <paul@...>
Date: 2002-03-19T22:56:06+09:00
Subject: Re: style choice

On Tue, Mar 19, 2002 at 10:19:42PM +0900, Ron Jeffries wrote:
> A style question for the community ... which of the following do you prefer, and
> why? Or, if you prefer some third version, what is it and why?
>   
>   def degree
>     return @degree if @degree > 0
>     @scopes.each { | field | @degree += field.length }
>     @degree
>   end
>   
>   def degree
>     @scopes.each { | field | @degree += field.length } if @degree == 0
>     @degree
>   end

I prefer the top one over the bottom one, because it doesn't try to cram
as much as possible into one line.  Many C programmers like to do this,
but I don't think it's a good idea in either language (C or Ruby).

One problem I see with the first solution is that the statement:
  return @degree if @degree > 0

does not emphasize the condition "if @degree > 0", but the more I write
Ruby code, the less of an issue this is.  However, since many of my
co-workers have a hard time reading code written this way, I tend to
write like the following instead:

  if @degree > 0 then
    return @degree
  end

even if it is a single statement inside the if..end.  This also means
less editing when I want to add a second statement.

The other issue is that making:
  @degree

be the last statement doesn't emphasize that you intend to return that
value.  Since  it is faster than using:
  return @degree

I tend to write instead:
  @degree #return

though I think Ruby should optimize the case where return is the last
statement in the method for me.

Paul