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Date:      Thu, 13 May 2010 17:26:44 -0400
From:      Garance A Drosehn <gad@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com>, hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: proposed change to style(9): require yoda style if statements
Message-ID:  <p06240808c8121d92f9c6@[128.113.24.47]>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimCLELSQ9YNZ403_PLhKOQCQTcl9H1bfb1ccRNb@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <AANLkTimCLELSQ9YNZ403_PLhKOQCQTcl9H1bfb1ccRNb@mail.gmail.com>

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At 10:36 PM +0300 5/11/10, 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)


I did this for awhile in my own programming, long enough ago that
there was no cool "yoda" name connected to it.  But I found that in
some situations it makes the code harder to read, so I don't do it
as much any more.  I don't mind if people do it, but I do not think
it should be an official recommendation in style(9).  Or to say it
another way, I'd be annoyed if an otherwise-correct patch was asked
to be rewritten just because the developer used (variable == constant)
instead of (constant == variable).

-- 
Garance Alistair Drosehn     =               drosehn@rpi.edu
Senior Systems Programmer               or   gad@FreeBSD.org
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;             Troy, NY;  USA



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