use Perl

• Regexps and T-SQL (Score:1)

  by jplindstrom (594)

  I have two opposing examples of languages that are more likely to need comments than others: regexps and T-SQL (Sybase/SQL Server). One is extremely terse, one is extremely verbose.
  
  Regexps are usually very compact and opaque. Your comment about whitespace is spot on, so /x should obviously be encouraged. But even with a sanely laid out regexp, the pattern of a regexp usually needs comments to indicate exactly what (\w+-\d) means in the context of a program. The regexp syntax itself doesn't allow us to do t
  • Re: $_ (Score:1)

    by Smylers (2592)

    When it comes to Perl, I find that using implicit $_ often obscures the code. Not using an explicit variable means a missed opportunity to self-document the code by naming the variable properly.

    I think the exact opposite. $_ has a meaning in Perl: “the current ‘thing’ being operated on”. That's a well-defined convention, and it has the advantage of being the same in every program.

    In other languages when people want a temporary variable they often use i or n or s, but they aren'
    • Re: $_ (Score:1)

      by jplindstrom (594) on 2004.12.20 11:33 (#36961) Journal

      Using $i as a loop variable doesn't increase readability unless it is to communicate that "it's just a loop variable" and that's seldom the case since the Perl foreach is so much more useful than the C-style for loop.
      
      If the code block is very brief, like in

      dostuff($_) for(@servers);

      then I agree that it isn't necessary to alias it to a new name. But if the code block is longer than a few lines, it's indeed very useful to have an actual name connected to the entity you're dealing with.
      
      Consider the following piece of code:

      for ($oPost->aCommentLast($no)) {
          sleepMinutes(rand(2));
       
          my $oReplier = Snacks::Subscriber->oGetRandom;
          my $oReply = Snacks::Message->new(
                  oPoster => $oReplier,
                  oReplyTo => $oMessage,
                  text => $_->{text}
          );
          $oReply->send($oSender);
      }

      Note how the my $oReply line doesn't stand alone since you have to backtrack to the loop to find out what $_ is.

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