Hi Joel! On 9/15/06, Joel de Guzman <joel@boost-consulting.com> wrote:
But why would a layperson have to read pseudo-english embedded in arcane C++ when she can read the documentation? IMO, (sorry Dean) all this hoopla is just an elaborate excuse not to write proper detailed documentation.
Yes, having someone else read pseud-english in C++ is a bit too much to ask. But for the programmers' sake, reading something that's meant to be a specification and use it as such in code might be helpful. At least I seem to think it is. ;-)
IMO, programs that end up overly complex and rife with potential error stems from the lack of documentation and design discipline. Code goes haywire and get into a tangled mess, and hence become unreadable in the process. It does not start from unreadable code, it starts from lack of, inadequate, or improper documentation.
Indeed. But documentation aside, the same reason why we have unit tests is to test whether a system is within specification. This approach is just yet another way of specifing expected behavior, using a closer to english language. At least, this is the aim of the spec library anyway. :-) -- Dean Michael C. Berris C++ Software Architect Orange and Bronze Software Labs, Ltd. Co. web: http://software.orangeandbronze.com/ email: dean@orangeandbronze.com mobile: +63 928 7291459 phone: +63 2 8943415 other: +1 408 4049532 blogs: http://mikhailberis.blogspot.com http://3w-agility.blogspot.com http://cplusplus-soup.blogspot.com