From owner-freebsd-current  Wed Mar  3 16: 4:28 1999
Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Received: from coleridge.kublai.com (coleridge.kublai.com [207.96.1.116])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 631C914FB6
	for <current@FreeBSD.ORG>; Wed,  3 Mar 1999 16:04:25 -0800 (PST)
	(envelope-from shmit@coleridge.kublai.com)
Received: (from shmit@localhost)
	by coleridge.kublai.com (8.9.2/8.9.1) id SAA02590;
	Wed, 3 Mar 1999 18:58:32 -0500 (EST)
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>
Reply-To: shmit@kublai.com
References: <199903031957.LAA78943@vashon.polstra.com> <Pine.LNX.4.04.9903031215150.25376-100000@feral-gw>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Mailer: Mutt 0.95.1us
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
X-Sender: If your mailer pays attention to this, it's broken.
X-PGP-Info: finger shmit@kublai.com for my public key.
Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG
Precedence: bulk
X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG

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


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message