[TriLUG] OT: A C++ Templated Class Problem

[Owen Berry]

On Mon, Apr 17, 2006 at 02:10:45PM -0400, Tanner Lovelace wrote:
> The solution to this is to make code sections small.  Make them
> do one thing and only one thing.  That doesn't mean it can be
> done in a clever manner.

I seem to remember Linus saying something in an interview I read to the
effect that a function should perform one task, otherwise it is too
complicated. While it's not always easy to determine what a single task
is, and not wanting to end up with thousands of stupid functions, I
think a good programmer should have a reasonably good feel for a balance
between the two.

Now that you have the functions broken down, it's good to comment at the
start what that function does, even if you don't have time to go in and
comment on the details. I had the misfortune of spending some time
reading through some of the evolution-data-server code. Ugh! No matter
whether it works well or not, not one line of comment as to what the
functions do. Not for any of the functions I looked at anyway. Almost
impossible for someone else to come in and see what is going on.
</rant>

Owen