Comments on: Day 2: Write Shorter Methods

By: coliveira

coliveira — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:54:48 +0000

@Katie: I agree that there are exceptions to this rule, but I think it is much harder to make a mistake when methods are short and to the point.

By: Jaroslaw Dobrzanski

Jaroslaw Dobrzanski — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:03:34 +0000

That reminds me of a couple of methods 2 screens’ long in the project I’m working on right now. Try to change anything there…

First thing before I pick up on such mnethods is refactoring. Unfortunately time is money, and we all lack of time, so that’s not always possible. Also, refactoring means thourough testing – time again…

That all brings the question – do I really have to write so long method? Please ask it yourself when you’re coding. I’m sure you’ll save lots of time the person who needs to maintain it.

Cheers,
Jarek

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:47:51 +0000

Interestingly enough, there is a TOO short point for methods as well, where you have broken up your code so much that it is difficult to follow the flow of control between methods. While writing shorter methods is good when it is a technique to improve reusability and readability, it must be done consciously. It is not a silver bullet.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 30 May 2009 19:57:34 +0000

Good advice (p.s. don’t forget to spell check your posts!)

By: Eugen Paraschiv

Eugen Paraschiv — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:36:14 +0000

One other major advantage of writing short methods is code reutilization – you’re much more likely to reuse short method with single intent than long methods that do more than one thing. It leads to more reusable code and to not breaking DRY.

By: Veera

Veera — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:50:18 +0000

Informative.

Some where I read that a function should be as lengthier as that it could be seen in monitor without scrolling the page! :)

By: Ram kishore

Ram kishore — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:10:50 +0000

Last 2 articles can gear as well as steer my programming career, which I will take up soon.

Eagerly, looking for another 28 articles.

As a supplement to article 1;I suggest “Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective
By Diomidis Spinellis”

Many Thanks.

By: Kjartan Ólason

Kjartan Ólason — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:30:14 +0000

Great article!!! Looking forward to the next 28 days!!!

Thank you!!!

By: coliveira

coliveira — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:35:15 +0000

@Shaun, thanks for your suggestion. I was certainly thinking about something along these lines.

By: Shaun

Shaun — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:09:56 +0000

Its early in your series, but I’d suggest as one step:

Learn Functional Programming – even if you intend to keep on with OOP.