Monday, December 1, 2008

Doing Python Wrong

Mike Pirnat found a snippet of python code. I can only suppose it was written as a joke. Python is such a readable language left in something approaching a "natural" state. This code looks like an entry in the old C obfuscated code contest. It uses a lot of the same tricks they would use back then, though we don't have any way of writing proper macros. It could have gotten much worse if they really wanted to stretch with lambdas, comps, generators, localizing methods, misusing decorators, etc.

Personally, I think it's a great example of how important naming and tidiness are. If you can make a great language like python look like a load of manure, then imagine how "clever" programmers can do evil in languages like C++, Java, or even Ruby.

Bad code is a matter of intent (or default, in some cases). Good code is intentional. All our code should not be joke code.

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