Good Coding Rules - was Case statement structure

[Skysnake]

Quote

The rule is that Case statements with most events should be in top of the list.

From From here, bottom of the post

I am not arguing the logic of this, merely would like to point out that if there is such a rule, it is not documented...  Are there other such rules?

Skysnake

Edited December 8, 2017 by Skysnake

[jchd]

It isn't a rule, but something you can consider in any on-the-fly interpreted language. Consider this simple sequence:

If <Condition> Then
    [13,000 lines of code]
Else
    [Action]
End

It's obvious that, unless a form of compilation has taken place which can jump direct to [Action] when <Condition> isn't met, the interpreter will have to read and ignore 13,000 lines, something which wastes time. Hence if you expect the false branch to be significantly more frequent than the true branch, you should swap them and negate Condition.

[Earthshine]

lol, never send an if to do a switch's (case) job

[Skysnake]

Thank you. Perhaps this thread should live with the "good coding practice" posts?

Are there any other such? (eager to learn)

 

[Earthshine]

1. Follow Modular design patterns in general. Split things into small autonomous units. Never  glom everything into a monolithic structure. (this one is important. Having one place to edit in case of changes instead of many files to edit. maintainability)
2. Use good meaningful variable names
3. Don't get carried away with macros, not to say don't use them
4. Keep functions small, over 50 lines and you need new supporting functions (this works well with C/C++/C# but not sure if applicable to AutoIT and otehr scripting languages, but I try to do this with AutoIT. Most of what makes my functions longer are just logging if they get long in AutoIT cause I am a logging fool
5. Don't follow the Single Entry Single Exit nonsense bullcrap either. If you run into a condition you need to break from the function, then do it
6. Don't use GoTo statements (obviously they lead to spaghetti logic that can't be maintained)
7. Use Constants for strings and stuff that does not change. that way, when something needs to change, it changes in one spot, not many

Edited December 8, 2017 by Earthshine

[JLogan3o13]

1 hour ago, Skysnake said:

Thank you. Perhaps this thread should live with the "good coding practice" posts?

Are there any other such? (eager to learn)

 

I would agree. Why not add them to the existing thread below rather than starting another.

 

[LarsJ]

I added the note about order of Case statements in relation to code in a WM_NOTIFY message handler. This is important for a message handler which handles a huge number of events which is the case for a virtual listview.

This is in accordance with the warning under remarks for GUIRegisterMsg function in the help file. GUIRegisterMsg is used to create the message handler.