From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG  Wed May 12 07:20:33 2010
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: hackers@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CEF81106564A
	for <hackers@freebsd.org>; Wed, 12 May 2010 07:20:33 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from kamikaze@bsdforen.de)
Received: from mail.bsdforen.de (bsdforen.de [212.204.60.79])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9257D8FC12
	for <hackers@freebsd.org>; Wed, 12 May 2010 07:20:33 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from mobileKamikaze.norad (unknown [188.46.113.157])
	(using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits))
	(No client certificate requested)
	by mail.bsdforen.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9FEC68A1D03;
	Wed, 12 May 2010 09:03:43 +0200 (CEST)
Message-ID: <4BEA52CB.8080407@bsdforen.de>
Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 09:03:39 +0200
From: Dominic Fandrey <kamikaze@bsdforen.de>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD amd64; en-GB;
	rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100331 Thunderbird/3.0.4
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com>
References: <AANLkTimCLELSQ9YNZ403_PLhKOQCQTcl9H1bfb1ccRNb@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimCLELSQ9YNZ403_PLhKOQCQTcl9H1bfb1ccRNb@mail.gmail.com>
X-Enigmail-Version: 1.0.1
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: proposed change to style(9): require yoda style if statements
X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD
	<freebsd-hackers.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-hackers-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-hackers-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers>,
	<mailto:freebsd-hackers-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 07:20:33 -0000

On 11/05/2010 21:36, Eitan Adler wrote:
> My proposal is simple:
> require that any if statement that compares a constant to a mutable variable
> be written as
> if (constant == variable)
> instead of
> if (variable == constant)
> 
> this prevents an extremely common programming error
> if (variable = constant)
> 
> While this is almost always found in testing sometimes thing can slip
> through and writing it using the former method will generate a compiler
> warning.

Is this suggestion due to the discussions around yoda-style in
the comments of:
http://www.globalnerdy.com/2010/05/09/new-programming-jargon/

I think the pro-yoda faction actually has more convincing
arguments, though I never considered using yoda-style myself.

-- 
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?