A tale of code
DISCLAIMER
This post was originally posted on SDN on 07-10-2020. I decided to keep some of my posts here too.
Take a look at this:
And this one:
This one:
vs this one:
The flow:
and
Now with code.
Don’t focus on code semantics, but the visual representation. It is just dummy example, it’s all about formatting.
The first examples, following Clean ABAP preferred rules:
and with helper variables:
Now applying refactoring – Alt+Shift+R in Eclipse, some names changed:
the second with helper variables after name changes:
Now different style examples with line break and incremental indentation:
with helper variables:
Applying refactoring, names changed:
and the second version with helper variables refactored:
The last two images shows why I personally prefer using incremental indentation –
no messed up code after renaming. Both styles are readable for me but this the second
one without so strict alignment is refactoring-friendly, which is a very important
thing for constant improvement of code and naming things correctly. I don’t want to
manually correct main code + unit test code + dependent code after each name change
(and be sure that everyone in a team remember to “fix” code after his or her refactoring changes).
This heavily right-aligned code is also hard to read on smaller screens in editors or webpages like version control systems.
Speaking of version control – here are diffs for the Clean ABAP preferred rule, after refactoring I have aligned all things again.
ABAP Git diff (where are my name changes?):
Bitbucket diff:
Now incrementally indented code – changes are visible clearly.
ABAP Git diff:
Bitbucket diff:
An interesting video about this topic by Kevlin Henney (starting around 10-11 minute).
There is also a discussion on this topic in Clean ABAP repo:
