From "The Pragmatic Programmer" (tip #22):
DRY - Don't Repeat Yourself - Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system.
In short, when in doubt, make a sub. Name the sub properly, and you have replace several lines of code in the original location with a sub call that is, in effect, a comment.
As to sub size, someone suggested no more than one page. I follow the rule that a sub (including comments and white-space) must fit on my screen without scrolling. Only excpeption is if there is a long list of constants or other literal text.
I find it much easier to have subs like:
sub foo {
readstuff();
formatstuff();
writestuff() if check_stuff();
}
I have seen some code that reads like English until you get to the subs that actually do anything. And the subs that do anything are just a few lines long, easy to understand, and documented by the sub name (check_and_exit_if_bad()).
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Snippets of code should be wrapped in
<code> tags not
<pre> tags. In fact, <pre>
tags should generally be avoided. If they must
be used, extreme care should be
taken to ensure that their contents do not
have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent
horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor
intervention).
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