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Re: One Section to rule them all.

by rozallin (Curate)
on Jun 16, 2003 at 15:44 UTC ( [id://266212]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to One Section to rule them all.

I agree, in principle, with this suggestion as far as the organisation is concerned, but not with the concept of making all code into one categorised section.

I have always regarded Code Catacombs as a place for finished polished code; it performs a specific task, it is error free, and it has been, with the help of input from the Perlmonks community, tested and gone through perfective maintenance.

Snippets, on the other hand, is a section for code that cannot stand as a program on its own, but performs a task or useful tasks that may be helpful to other users who are writing their own programs. As such, it should be kept seperate from Code Catacombs, but it should have better categorisation system than it currently has.

The necessity of having both Craft and Cool Uses For Perl has always confused me though. I think Cool Uses For Perl should be made a subsection of Code Catacombs. Craft should be used as a temporary holding space for code that a monk wishes to submit for the Code Catacombs, but wants advice and feedback beforehand from others as to what could be done to make it an even better program before it is submitted to the Code Catacombs, which, after all, is where your Craft would really shine. Craft wouldn't need a categorisation system because it is assumed that the code will be moved by the user or by a moderator to Code Catacombs - in a sense it would be like a Seekers of Perl Wisdom for code.

I also think that it would be a good idea to provide a small description at the front page of each of these sections to explain what each of these sections are about, and seeing as we already have a Super Search feature that can search in particular sections have a search box at the bottom of the page to allow quick searching of that section.

I think this would make the Monastery a lot more useful as a resource for learners and programmers. And even if everyone else hates the ideas I have presented here :) I'd still be willing to volunteer as a NodeReOrganiser if the general consensus is that something does indeed need to be done about the organisation of code.

Just my tuppence.

--
rozallin j. thompson
The Webmistress who doesn't hesitate to use strict;

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: One Section to rule them all.
by benn (Vicar) on Jun 16, 2003 at 16:09 UTC
    Well volunteered that Monk! :)

    I agree in principle about the difference between a 'snippet' and a 'program', but I think that this distinction is easily blurred - a well-crafted one-liner is a complete finished polished program, but would probably be placed in Snippets. Somebody looking to perform that task may never realise (or believe!) that a Snippet could do the whole job, and would be searching fruitlessly for a 50-line program. In a category listing, this could be indicated simply by a 'code class' field ("one-liner, snippet, module, program" etc.)

    As for the distinction between 'finished' and not...well, I don't know about you, but I've never finished a program in my life, after 20-odd years of coding :). Even the most 'perfect' of code in the Catacombs has comments, updates etc. - it all evolves. Again, a "status" field ("experimental,finished,mature" etc.) would solve this simply.

    Thanks for the comments,
    Ben.

      I agree in principle about the difference between a 'snippet' and a 'program', but I think that this distinction is easily blurred

      There was nothing in rozallin's proposal to stipulate that an entry in Code Catacombs had to be a particular minimum number of lines of code. If a one-liner stands on its own as a useful and reliable tool, then it would belong in the Catacombs. (Meanwhile, some "snippets" could be quite large, despite having limited utility...)

      I especially like rozallin's proposed distinction between the functions of "Craft" and "Catacombs" -- i.e. tentative vs. tested code. Note that rozallin used the term "polished", not "finished"; indeed, there is virtually no such thing as "finished" code (except for stuff that no one uses any more).

      And because folks can update their own root nodes in the Catacombs section, this is an excellent place to maintain useful tools.

        There was nothing in rozallin's proposal to stipulate that an entry in Code Catacombs had to be a particular minimum number of lines of code.

        There was nothing in mine either, or my answer. I was simply pointing out that the distinction is fuzzy, and often the 'wrong' categorisation choice is made, based on the lack of firm criteria, and that I felt the choice was fairly arbitrary in the first place.

        Note that rozallin used the term "polished", not "finished"

        Actually, the exact phrase was "I have always regarded Code Catacombs as a place for finished polished code"...(unless my cut'n'paste is inserting random words again {g}) - hence my making the jokey point about code never being finished, which you kindly repeated.

        As for the point about distinguishing between 'tentative' and 'tested' code, again I think this is extremely fuzzy, and why bother trying to make it? As you say, the Catacombs is an excellent place to maintain code - why not have it spend its whole life cycle there? At what point would somebody decide to 'move' their code from Craft to Catacombs? Would the node move? Or would we simply get duplicated code - an old version in Craft, and newer versions in Catacombs? All this could simply be replaced, as I said, with a "status" indicator, which (if were required) would be able to give a finer granularity than simply "tentative/tested".

        Cheers, Ben.

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