C style

[Keith Bostic]

References: <1556 at brl-tgr.ARPA> <139200011 at uiucdcsb>

In article <139200011 at uiucdcsb>, kenny at uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU writes:
> For Heaven's sake, the big problem with this code is that the conditional
> is quite unreadable in in-line code like this.  I'd prefer

	while (illegal (ch = getch()))
		beep ();
	addch (ch);
	refresh ();
	   ...
int illegal (ch)
 char ch;
 {
	return ((ch < 1 || ch > 5)
	     && ch != 'E');
 }

> which at least separates the test from the action.  I realize that it also
> moves the test further away physically in the code, but I think the price
> is worthwhile.

It may enhance readability, but it's not worthwhile.  You've just managed
to add a context switch per *character*.  Now, imagine what that's going to
do to a program like spell.  I'm not arguing that everything in the world
should be inline code, but there are still certain real-world limitations
even applications programmers should be aware of.

--keith