Comments on Real Software: Say what you mean

Totally agree--you cannot have too many parenthese...

2010-01-18T03:31:45.659-06:00

Totally agree--you cannot have too many parentheses :)

It would be great if you give the solution for the...

2009-06-20T10:03:33.304-05:00

It would be great if you give the solution for the vb.net code equivalent code in RealBasic. I am new in RB program.

Char.ConvertToUtf32(name, count)
Char.ConvertFromUtf32(number)

Waiting for your early reply. Its very very urgent.

Thanks in advance.

The reason I parenthesize extensively - which one ...

2009-06-12T22:05:12.251-05:00

The reason I parenthesize extensively - which one has higher precedence =, <>, AND or OR ?

The full parentheses make it unambiguous as to how I want it evaluated (regardless of what the compiler thinks) and I don't have to even think about precedence when looking at it.

I've programmed using several languages, COBOL...

2009-06-12T16:17:45.935-05:00

I've programmed using several languages, COBOL, Fortran, Pascal, BASIC, REALbasic, UNISYS LINC, ADS, Prolog and LISP - so I know a thing or two about parentheses! - and I have to agree with Karen.

As soon as I saw the code in error I knew what the fault was. Always put parentheses around your OR conditions, and try not to mix ANDs and ORs too much. Better two if statements than something you can't easily read or debug.

Eric.

Also, complete parentheses in this example reassur...

2009-06-12T14:21:36.953-05:00

Also, complete parentheses in this example reassures me I'm using logical AND and OR rather than bitwise operations.

(I'm a big believer that logical and bitwise operators should have different names, but that ship has sailed in Realland and we are where we are.)

I don't bounce between languages as often thes...

2009-06-12T14:15:55.121-05:00

I don't bounce between languages as often these days as I did in my youth. And rules of precedence seem much more uniform between languages than they were when I was cutting my teeth.

But I got in the habit of parenthesizing everything completely (as in Norman's final example) because as a young programmer I was language fickle and ran into hard to find bugs because of this very problem.

I've found comprehensive parenthesizing to be quite helpful in writing, debugging, and in reading the code down the line. I also find others' code without complete parentheses to be unsettling -- there's always a question in my mind as to whether it works as intended (or instead, as written).

Hmm, I think I disagree. If you use the extra set ...

2009-06-12T13:35:25.239-05:00

Hmm, I think I disagree. If you use the extra set of parentheses you won't have to think about precedence at all, and it is clear immediately as to what is evaluated first. To me this is less confusing.

I agree with Karen; plus the example provided cont...

2009-06-12T12:09:36.832-05:00

I agree with Karen; plus the example provided contains one too many right parentheses -- adding to the confusion.

Norm, Actually I don't think there is any nee...

2009-06-12T11:02:32.843-05:00

Norm,

Actually I don't think there is any need for so many parentheses- and more than necessary IMO makes things harder to read by humans.

How I would write that I think is equally unambiguous but more easily readable:

IF me.ListIndex <> -1 AND (key = SpecialChars.EnterChar OR key = SpecialChars.ReturnChar)

- Karen