In code that may be maintained in the future, whether by myself or another, I will nearly always opt for readability. To ensure that I follow the best practices in production code, I follow my personal standards even in throw away code--primarily because I've found that I often take incorporate those bits into larger or later projects.

In my experience, line reduction is not a good benchmark for code quality. That's not to say that you shouldn't look for tighter ways to produce your code, but you should do judiciously. Obfuscation is fine for training or entertainment purposes, but it shouldn't be used in production.

I'm a member of the over documentation school, primarily because I have a memory like a steel sieve. If I'm not sure I'll remember why I chose a certain strategy in a week, a month, or a year, I write it down. If it's gonna confuse me, it will likely confuse the person that replaces me.

It's that simple. We're always decrying the lack or quality of documentation with the tools we use. Why, then, would we deliberately contribute to the problem in the tools we write?

For a better treatise on the subject, consider Code Complete. While it might be considered a bit dated by some and the examples are in C, the principles discussed are ones that every professional programmer/developer/anaylst should at least consider. (Also, if you pick up a copy by clicking that link, our tireless leader will get a small kickback.)

--f

In reply to Re: Code for readablity or fewer lines? by footpad
in thread Code for readablity or fewer lines? by Tuna

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.