Re: Which code style do you prefer the most?

Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> writes:

On 01.03.2025 23:20, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

On Sat, 1 Mar 2025 21:32:59 +0100, Janis Papanagnou wrote:

My guess is that this form is just an informal syntax mimicking Perl's
function parameter passing ...

 
The idea of passing arguments by keyword predates Perl.

>
That wouldn't surprise me. - I know it from Perl. - Which other
(earlier) languages do you have in mind? - What's its origin?

For example, it exists in Ada since 1983.  The following are all
equivalent, given that Foo takes integer arguments Arg1 and Arg2:

    Foo(Arg1 => 10, Arg2 => 20);
    Foo(Arg2 => 20, Arg1 => 10);
    Foo(10, Arg2 => 20);
    Foo(10, 20);

The syntax is IMHO much nicer than using /*...*/ comments in C.

Python has optional keyword arguments:

    print("Oops!", end="", file=sys.stderr)

Perl doesn't have keyword arguments as a language feature, but it can be
mimicked by passing hash or hash reference.

If I wanted to annotate arguments with parameter names, I'd probably use
aligned // comments with the name at the end of the line:

    confection = prepare_carefully_according_to_detailed_recipe(
        flat,             // pan
        clarified_butter, // line_with
        something_yummy,  // filling
        lotsa_pastry,     // cover_with
        90 * MINUTES      // bake_for
      );

In practice, I seldom do so unless there's direct language support.

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */