> I have been a fan of custom constants since I started using 4D, probably because > my background in C meant that I couldn’t imagine a programming environment which > didn’t have them (whether as preprocessor directives or enumerations).
How have you coped with no enumerated types and no structs? I regularly feel the urge to resort to self-harm because 4D has no structs and I never used C. I mean, structs (and similar) a language feature from the 1970s...not exactly some fancy modern novelty. >Boolean constants: why? What more than True and False do you need? Now there is an entirely fair question which I failed to answer well in my feature request. Happily, Miyako answered it well: I think what you are after is more like MyMethod (with_this_option;without_that_option) instead of MyMethod (True;False) Yes. Lables that mean true or false - I would use them a lot. Here's an example: Method_DoThingsAndStuff (True) // Eh? Method_DoThingsAndStuff (Open file) // That's better. > Removing constants from compiled / distribution code. For completed databases, yes. For components, no: I use constants > exported from components as a way of communicating with them, as selectors or parameters. Good point. Yeah, better that this is an option. I'm still getting used to 4D's components and haven't thought everything through. Sometimes, I want exacty what you describe, other times what I want is to make sure that extra constants are tossed to avoid duplication up at the host database level. Best would be if 4D would check for duplicate constants and notify us. Righ now, you can stack multiple identical constants into the same system. > I remember being bewildered when I started using 4D that the 4D Chart didn’t using constants for the huge > array of selectors passed to its routines, but needed me to remember numeric selectors. Oh, that's been fixed! They killed 4D Chart ;-) Oddly enough, the new charting (toy) feature GRAPH supports 8 chart types but they're specified by numerics without constants. I added my own custom constants for these. > But I must confess to being a monster, sadly. You. Monster. I think that a lot of fancy conversations about programming style boil down to typing speed. I'm probably in the 80-90% in typing speed and I loveReallyLongNamesThatCompletelyDescribeWhatAMethodDoesClearlyAndCompletely. Others don't. I had a boss that typed like a chicken looking for corn. His names were, well, brief. No philosophy, it was just hard for him to get anything done because of his limited keyboard skills. There would have been no problem spreading some philosophy on top of that as an excuse but, well, it came down to only having a finger on each hand for typing. ********************************************************************** 4D Internet Users Group (4D iNUG) FAQ: http://lists.4d.com/faqnug.html Archive: http://lists.4d.com/archives.html Options: http://lists.4d.com/mailman/options/4d_tech Unsub: mailto:4d_tech-unsubscr...@lists.4d.com **********************************************************************
