Yep, code a bit BASIC-ish? Guilty sticks hand in air

What I try to do now is write my code in the step-by-step way I do to get the sequence of operations planned out in my head, take a break and then come back and look at it with a fresh eye to see where I could tighten it up and make it more efficient and/or easier to read/maintain.

What I'd really like to do is be able to write the fluent, lyrical language I see on PM straight off from fresh but I guess that will come with time and experience. I'm already making headway, particularly where deciding which flow-control structures to use: Goodbye...

for ($i=0; $i<$foo; ++$i){
}
[download]

and, Hello...

 foreach $i(@foo){
}
[download]

I think one good way to 'play creatively' and improve fluency is probably to try writing obfuscated code and poetry. Reading and trying to disentangle obfuscated code is probably helpful too.

Elgon