>Pity the poor maintenance programmer!

James;

Why do some programmers not comment his/her code?

1. Lazy?
2. Takes time!
3. I know what I am doing.
4. Job security - nobody can read it.
5. Who cares?

About absolute expressions such as "always use else with if". It goes back to the expression "never use an absolute"! Absolutely!

Well, we could satisfy the absolute use of else in a conditional statement by the following:


local llOK
llOK = false

If llOK
Do Code
Else
‘optional area which is sometimes used but not always required
Endif


That might keep some happy but not everyone.

I know some programmers who insist that you should never use an if statement as it requires evaluation of each line of code and you therefore "take a hit". Everything has to be on one line. Readability is not the issue in this case (readable indeed!) - it is speed that matters!

Programmers come in different sizes and wrappers. After a while we find a programming style that "becomes our own" and we stick with it. Anything else is foreign" and not comfortable as it may require us to think. Some styles are concerned with one or more topics such as but not limited to readability, speed of execution, elegance and the list goes on.

Not everyone will use the same style and that is what makes things more interesting. The choice of how we get the job done is best left up to the programmer. However, I think there are few if any true absolute statements regarding coding style that can be stated about a program that works well. Either it works or it does not! Now that is an absolute that should be understood!

Tom