• @FiskFisk33
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    181 month ago

    Ya’ll think you have real unsolved problems. I’m here with “naming variables” (⌐■_■).

    • @xJREB@lemmy.world
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      161 month ago

      As a software engineering researcher, I strongly agree. SE research has studied code comprehension for more than 40 years, but for that amount of time, we know surprisingly little about what makes really high-quality code. We are decent in saying what makes very bad code, though, but beyond extreme cases, it’s hard to come to fairly general statements.

        • @xJREB@lemmy.world
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          330 days ago

          A few bad things in code for which we have fairly consistent evidence:

          • high nesting depth
          • meaningless or single-letter variable names
          • lots of code duplication
          • very inconsistent formatting
          • very complicated Boolean conditions with AND and OR
          • functions with a lot of parameters
    • @sparkle@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      we become programmers because we lack creativity. my brain short circuits when i have to come up with something other than “foo”, “bar”, or maybe even “baz”

      • holgersson
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        81 month ago

        Programming is quite literally creative problem solving, so I doubt that programmers lack creativity.

        • @sparkle@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Problem solving, of course, but creative writing, composition, and art… not my cup of tea.

      • @Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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        21 month ago

        I have the opposite problem, my variables are sometimes too descriptive. I even annoy myself at times with VariableThatDoesThisOneThing and VariableThatDoesDifferentThing just because I want to be able to come back later and not wonder what I was smoking.