Date: 22 Apr 2003 13:12:32 -0400 From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-chat-local@be-well.no-ip.com> To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org, Jonathon McKitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> Subject: Re: Code layout and debugging time Message-ID: <444r4qmp6n.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> In-Reply-To: <20030422132906.GB64101@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> References: <20030422132906.GB64101@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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Jonathon McKitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> writes: > I was just reading an interesting statement in Code Complete: Ah. You are trying to indoctrinate yourself into Microsoft's ideas of good practices. Thanks for warning us. > "Although this particular statistic may be hard to put to work, a study by > Gorla, Benander, and Benander found that the optimal number of blank lines > in a program is about 8 to 16 percent. Above 16 percent, debug time > increases dramatically (1990)." > > Doesn't this seem to contradict the idea that clear, well-formatted code > with lots of blank lines is easier to read and understand? How could > debugging be any different? No contradiction at all. It just shows that the definition of "lots of blank lines" is somewhere below 16%. Assuming we can trust the study (but it sounds about right to me). > As a side note, perhaps it is simply legacy code, but it seems that the > older the source in the BSD tree, the denser it is. Probably to save > punched cards, eh? ;-) More or less. That 'definition of "lots of blank lines"' is probably affected by the total amount of screen space available.
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