On Tue, 23 Apr 2024, at 11:25, Rony G. Flatscher wrote:
> The nice thing is that Rexx allows different variants of string
> concatenations and one is free to use what seems to be the
> "easiest", the "safest". Personally I use blank concatenations
> by default and abuttal or || only if there really should not be
> a single blank between the concatenated strings which is
> very rarely the case. Again, YMMV.
I find it usually depends on whether I'm building error messages
from fragmentary values & phrases, when something like
errmsg = funcname atline part1 part2
seems clear enough to me, and (eg) building filenames when
I'm likely to use eg
fyle = dq || frm || "\" || mac || "\" || "no.such" || dq /* test -
leafname error */
fyle = dq || frm || "\" || mac || "FAIL\" || "ok.txt" || dq /* test -
path error */
fyle = dq || frm || "\" || mac || "\" || "ok.txt" || dq /* should
work */
I usually put literal single or double quotes into vars named sq & dq, as I
find it easier not to see quotes which are part of a final value jumbled up
with those that need to be around literals ... and I don't like mixing "'" &
'"' on one line of code.
Also - as you'll see if you read this in a monospace font - I tend to space
out parts of /sets/ of related statements like the ones above so that one
can see they all do the same thing, ie I don't write
fyle = dq || frm || "\" || mac || "\" || "no.such" || dq
fyle = dq || frm || "\" || mac || "FAIL\" || "ok.txt" || dq
fyle = dq || frm || "\" || mac || "\" || "ok.txt" || dq
I almost never space-out parameters on function calls, but sometimes
do, eg the space after c2x( and those before the final closing bracket
in these lines
op = op c2x( "basic vb vbs" copies(" ", 10 + gutr) "built-in: pqr" )
op = op c2x( "html" copies(" ", 23 + gutr) "built-in: stuv" )
op = op c2x( "perl" copies(" ", 25 + gutr) "mine: perl" )
op = op c2x( "plain text" copies(" ", 15 + gutr) "mine: plaintext" )
op = op c2x( "shell scripts" copies(" ", 11 + gutr) "mine: shellscrp" )
- which is building a string of values each 'word' of which is a phrase,
in hex so that it can be passed somewhere & hacked apart easily. The
copies() calls are because I'm stretching the middle of each phrase so
that the texts (regrettably going to be displayed in a proportional
font) will still more or less be presented in sensible columns - tabs
don't work in the target application.
Sometimes I choose space concatenation or || in different parts of
a long expression because I think (with syntax colouring & vertical
alignment) one's eye is drawn to different sections of the whole
expression according to how the ||-delimited bits are syntax-
coloured.
Here, || shows up in bright yellow on a black background so
tends to draw attention to what's near it.
--
Jeremy Nicoll - my opinions are my own.
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