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Date:      Wed, 3 Mar 1999 18:58:32 -0500
From:      Brian Cully <shmit@kublai.com>
To:        Matthew Jacob <mjacob@feral.com>
Cc:        John Polstra <jdp@polstra.com>, phk@critter.freebsd.dk, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Request for review: changes to if_vlan.c
Message-ID:  <19990303185832.A193@kublai.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.04.9903031215150.25376-100000@feral-gw>; from Matthew Jacob on Wed, Mar 03, 1999 at 12:16:20PM -0800
References:  <199903031957.LAA78943@vashon.polstra.com> <Pine.LNX.4.04.9903031215150.25376-100000@feral-gw>

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On Wed, Mar 03, 1999 at 12:16:20PM -0800, Matthew Jacob wrote:
> Now I'll stir the other pot and say that performance isn't the issue- the
> issue is that there's nothing that says that strings and identifiers are
> always easier to use and/or understand than numbers.

From `The Elements of Programming Style' Second Edition,
by Kernighan and Plauger:

	The other, more general, failing is the use of numeric
	codes (floating point at that) to name the metals. (Was
	floating point used because all the metals had names that
	were ``floating point'' variables in Fortran? What if we
	added LEAD, NICKEL, and IRON?)

The point should be clear, using proper string identifiers would
make your program easier to understand and modify, as well as
allow for greater extensibility.

Of course, you can pick bad strings, too, but you still wouldn't
lose of numbers.

-bjc


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