Fortran (Was: The "does Python have variables?" debate)
Steven D'Aprano
steve at pearwood.info
Tue May 13 03:22:28 EDT 2014
On Tue, 13 May 2014 02:31:14 -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
> People who write buggy self-modifying code aren't paying attention.
[...]
> IMO, people who bad-mouth self-modifying code are folks who don't have
> the patience to do it right, because stable self-modifying code CAN most
> certainly be done.
Many things *can* be done. The question is, is it worth the effort to do
it? The simplest code that meets the functional requirements is usually
the best.
> Stable, dead reliable self modifying code CAN be written, I have done
> it. And that code was still in use at the tv station that I wrote it
> for 15 years later.
Yep, and people have written stable, dead reliable unstructured code
using GOTO and possibly even COMEFROM too. Nevertheless, nobody serious
uses unstructured code these days. It takes much more effort to get it
stable and reliable in the first place. Maintenance is ten or a hundred
times harder and therefore more expensive. Chances are good that the
software you wrote 15 years ago is now a black box: it damn well better
work, because no-one knows how it works well enough to debug problems or
add new functionality.
And after 15 years, I daresay that includes you.
--
Steven
More information about the Python-list
mailing list