in reply to Re^3: Refactoring Perl 4 - Replace Temp with Query
in thread Refactoring Perl #4 - Replace Temp with Query

The reader must always keep in mind that the examples are given only to show the technique, not to serve as illustrative cases. In other words, for pedagogical purposes, this 10-line code fragment is the picture which, lacking it, would take 1000 words of prose to explain. Once the reader has learned how the technique works, she can implement it in real-world cases which are much more complex and actually call for the pattern.

A word spoken in Mind will reach its own level, in the objective world, by its own weight
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Re^5: Refactoring Perl 4 - Replace Temp with Query
by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Aug 02, 2007 at 18:51 UTC
    I have no issue with examples being simplified (although my personal preference is for actual case studies). I only have an issue with examples being oversimplified, in which the example serves to make the technique look harmful rather than helpful.

    The particular example not only leads to the technique appearing to be overkill, which most simplified examples will. It actually leads to the particular code of the example being, IMHO, less expressive and more prone to bugs after use of the technique than before. That surely will not build confidence in the technique.

    I think that examples should, when possible, probably serve to show not just the How, but also the Why. I think this choice of example on Fowler's part does not show why to use the technique in question. That's nothing against agianni's repetition of the example here, since the point of this series of nodes on agianni's part is to go through the exercises in order as Fowler presented them and show how they may apply in Perl.
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