On Wednesday, 4 April 2018 at 19:51:27 UTC, kdevel wrote:
On Wednesday, 4 April 2018 at 19:19:30 UTC, Ali wrote:
On Wednesday, 4 April 2018 at 18:57:27 UTC, kdevel wrote:
[...]
I think the rules should have been the same everywhere
and if there was an exception to be made, it could be made for
the main function
since the main function is special anyway
The main function of a program corresponds to the final
paragraph of a novel. I never understood why programmers place
this function which possibly depends on all other functions in
the translation unit at the beginning.
BTW: You can't write
void main ()
{
x.writeln;
int x;
}
import std.stdio;
There is no reason why the declaration of x should not be
postponed.
I've never seen the main function at the top but I think it would
be be nice place for it honnestly. Sounds more like a C legacy
than anything.
The reason why I place common imports at the top is because I
read a *lot* of code as my day job is to audit software. While
skimming rapidly through directories looking only at the top of
each file I know what they are about and can quickly infer their
purpose based solely on imports. This file does IO, this one web
stuff, etc (and to debunk quickly a counter argument I've heard
before: no, given how convoluted file names quickly get
especially in languages like java, directory structure isn't
nearly enough).
The same is true for the main function. If your code is clean it
should the main is the place where you orchestrate the whole
program. You should be able to grasp most of the program flow
from it. What it setups, information flow, etc. Of course in
practice people are often trying to burry useful information deep
down in functions (where it's generally too coupled for its own
good, but that's another story). Such burrying makes it harder to
get useful information from the main function, hence maybe why so
many are comfortable putting it at the end (I know I do by habit).
On the other hand, if the main effectively describes the programs
course then putting it at the beggining makes complete sense: it
is what you want to see first to get an idea of what the program
is doing. No function could be better suited for that.
Some points hinted here make me think of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyCYva9DhsI so maybe it could be
of some interest to you.
