SRL Archive - Discussions and Debates

Standards:

• should NOT be the sole purpose to deny a script,
• should NOT be taken into account when voting for a script.

Why?
Each user:

• has their own individual style of programming standards,
• may find some things with their style of standards to be easier to read than others.

What to do instead?
If you see something which has terrible standards by definition, for example:

program New;
begin
writeln('hello');writeln('hi2'); end.

Then tell them that the benefits of having improved standards (e.g, easier to spot/repair errors, etc).

(It's 12:40am and I'm tired, I might add on to this tomorrow)

I disagree that it "shouldn't be taken into account at all" when voting… To me, standards isn't such a big problem, but a script with great standards show that this script-writer has not only tried to learn how to write a script, but also how to write a script that looks nice.

From: Zyt3x
I disagree that it "shouldn't be taken into account at all" when voting… To me, standards isn't such a big problem, but a script with great standards show that this script-writer has not only tried to learn how to write a script, but also how to write a script that looks nice.

We're not looking for what "looks nice" in scripts, but the skill that was used to make the script, as-well as the scripters knowledge of the SRL include.

Agreeing with Dan here. It's not how pretty the script is, but instead the coding and how it functions.

I disagree. Nice, readable coding is part of good coding. However, individual styles of formatting: indenting, capitalization, commenting shouldn't be judged as long as there is some sort of formatting. ie. "Standards aren't the same as in SRL, you should do this… and this… instead." shouldn't be a reason to consider voting no.

Not that I'm a professional programmer or anything, but in industry, you're not the only one reading, maintaining and executing your code. There's no point in having a perfect script if no one else can read it.

Having said that though, standards are easily fixable. I agree an application should NOT be disqualified solely on standards. Having a script that works well and shows good use of SRL, etc, should be judged more highly than aesthetically appealing code.

I'll just say that I don't read piles of garbage. Individual style? yes. No style? no.

~RM

From: ZephyrsFury
I disagree. Nice, readable coding is part of good coding. However, individual styles of formatting: indenting, capitalization, commenting shouldn't be judged as long as there is some sort of formatting. ie. "Standards aren't the same as in SRL, you should do this… and this… instead." shouldn't be a reason to consider voting no.

Not that I'm a professional programmer or anything, but in industry, you're not the only one reading, maintaining and executing your code. There's no point in having a perfect script if no one else can read it.

Having said that though, standards are easily fixable. I agree an application should NOT be disqualified solely on standards. Having a script that works well and shows good use of SRL, etc, should be judged more highly than aesthetically appealing code.

Well put.
Pretty much sums up my thoughts too :)

So in summary, A standard is required, just to improve readability.

Standards increase my percentage of voting yes. If it's insane to read then that really hampers my percentage of voting yes – especially if I can't make out the code or what is going on.

Open source code should always be "easy" to read. Code which has bad standards should be kept to your self and not be open.

So, as was said, readability and consistancy is all we are after?

Standards meant a lot to me when I was learning. Its something that SRL really made clear from all of the tut writers. While some may say standards depend on the scripter, I agree; its a good thing to try different ones now and then (its fun :P). However for a membership application, I would like to think that the one thing that was always made clear to us would be addressed, Standards.

I strongly disagree with you Dan. Standards show a good structure of your script, not having them tells me your just messing until you got something working.

You don't need to script in THE OFFICIAL STANDARD, but as long the script has a good structure it will be good to read, it will show the guy knows how to build a script.