Doc's Blog — Doc Norton & Associates

What if no one reads it?

Among the books I am currently making my way through is "Exploring Computer Science with Scheme" by Oliver Grillmeyer. The publish date on this particular book is 1998. No matter how often it happens, I feel a twinge of despair for our profession when I read sound advice from a decade or more ago that has yet to be widely adopted; or worse is still hotly contested.

Grillmeyer contrasts a couple different functions that accomplish the same end. One terse, but obfuscated; One verbose, but transparent. In conclusion, Grillmeyer states, "In a tradeoff between readability and length of code, you should favor readability."