POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Smart little programming tricks, where to find ? : Re: Smart little programming tricks, where to find ? Server Time
10 Oct 2024 17:19:02 EDT (-0400)
  Re: Smart little programming tricks, where to find ?  
From: Darren New
Date: 18 Mar 2008 18:00:59
Message: <47e049ab@news.povray.org>
somebody wrote:
> I think the best "trick" is to use a programming language which was designed
> with at least some forethought, so that such tricks are unnecessary.

Heh.

To answer the original question, check out the book "programming pearls".

I do the (0 == X) and it seems quite natural after a time. (And I 
occasionally get asked why I do such things in languages where 
assignment and equality don't get mixed up, like Tcl. :-)

I also do the "never use the > sign" in comparisons. It's not a question 
of how you read it out loud, but a question of putting the things in the 
right order. For example:

   0 < A & A < B
If A is between zero and B.

   A < B | C < A
If A is outside the range B to C.

   if (start + 300 < now)
If now is at least 300 seconds past when we started.

Start putting in complicated timestamp calculations, and it becomes very 
helpful. Always use < or <=, always add rather than subtract offsets, 
and I almost never make a mistake and get the wrong things being compared.

It's kind of like drawing a picture, rather than writing a sentence. 
IME, most programmers are more visual than auditory.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."


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