From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Steve Revilak Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: How to improve the readability of ... Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2011 13:27:59 -0500 Message-ID: <20110101182749.GA6703@srevilak.net> References: <80ceeca0-1d32-47d1-ba96-feb4d9729c3a@v17g2000yqv.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="TakKZr9L6Hm6aLOc" X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1293906575 29959 80.91.229.12 (1 Jan 2011 18:29:35 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2011 18:29:35 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jan 01 19:29:31 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PZ6Cm-00077x-5l for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:29:30 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:33893 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PZ6CV-0006QS-HH for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 01 Jan 2011 13:29:11 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=37218 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PZ6C6-0006Ol-F8 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 01 Jan 2011 13:28:52 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PZ6BU-00067Q-Vt for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 01 Jan 2011 13:28:10 -0500 Original-Received: from mail3.sea5.speakeasy.net ([69.17.117.42]:60274) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PZ6BU-00067E-Mf for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 01 Jan 2011 13:28:08 -0500 Original-Received: (qmail 17488 invoked from network); 1 Jan 2011 18:28:06 -0000 Original-Received: from pool-108-7-59-215.bstnma.fios.verizon.net (HELO srevilak.net) (srevilak@[108.7.59.215]) (envelope-sender ) by mail3.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with AES256-SHA encrypted SMTP for ; 1 Jan 2011 18:28:06 -0000 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <80ceeca0-1d32-47d1-ba96-feb4d9729c3a@v17g2000yqv.googlegroups.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:78022 Archived-At: --TakKZr9L6Hm6aLOc Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Disposition: inline >From: girosenth >How to improve the readability of (any) LISP or any highlevel >functional language to the level of FORTH ? I am not familiar with forth, but I can respond to the general issue of improving code readability. >How does one improve readability so that the code is self-commenting ? I believe that you need to think of the act of writing a program as an act of *writing*. Many writers start with an outline, then a first draft, then many rounds of revision and editing. The goal of the first draft is to get the basic ideas down. The goal of revision and editing is to polish the ideas, and to make them easier for the reader to understand. It's rare for a first draft to be the final version. Writing a program is no different. The first draft is the first version that runs without crashing :) The editing and revision process is where you clean things up, improve structure, and so fourth. You should also read lots of code, to get ideas from other writers. In short, the writer influences readability much more than the language that he or she is writing in. Steve --TakKZr9L6Hm6aLOc Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.15 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAk0fci4ACgkQX7YJI4BuyDTCZwCfYAh8dvycRnv2h4BjkT+Z7rJK pNQAnAi1f1iOpW839j2xqlpikAUJQUwU =ghiJ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --TakKZr9L6Hm6aLOc--