It is a serious question. You would find 467617 easier to read and maintain to 467637?

To me, the nice thing about VHL languages is that you can encapsulate a single notion into a single line. What you call "multiple operations" I see as composite parts of a single high level operation.

When I see a Swartzian Transform, I think, "Ah! he's sorting the data". For the purposes of overview, I don't need to know how he is ordering the data, much less the mechanics of how he achives that ordering. Sorting is just a single step in the overall algorithm. Breaking that step up into several separate substeps, each with intermediate temporary storage only serves to confuse and conceal the overall algorithm.

Once I understand the overall algorithm I may need to investigate the sort to ensure that it is being done correctly and or modify it to meet new requirements. The 3 steps of the ST are well defined:

  • Isolate the keys from the rest of the data items.
  • Compare the keys in order of precedence.
  • Retrieve the whole data items in sorted order.

    You can acheive a similar encapsulation using subroutines as exemplified by Sort::Key, but then you end up with 25+ subroutines each with a slight variations on the name. That kind of namespace explosion is my major bugbear with hierarchal libraries (and to a degree with functional languages). It requires you to memorise or look up the names, function and parameters each time you need to do something, and worse, when trying to read or maintain someone else's code.

    Better I think to have a core set of powerful, flexible polymorphic functions that can be combined in obvious way to construct the myriad variations you need. Once you understand and recognise those core constructs, you spend less time looking things up and reading what and how they work and more time understanding what the code author is (trying) to do.

    I think!

    Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
    Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?
    "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
    The "good enough" maybe good enough for the now, and perfection maybe unobtainable, but that should not preclude us from striving for perfection, when time, circumstance or desire allow.

    In reply to Re^7: Thread on Joel on software forum : "I hate Perl programmers." by BrowserUk
    in thread Thread on Joel on software forum : "I hate Perl programmers." by techcode

    Title:
    Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
    and:  <code> code here </code>
    to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.