Is this an acceptable practice?

[Colborne_Greg]

I DO NOT NEED HELP Quit behaving like you know what the fook is going on. THE QUESTION IS - is this an acceptable practice, please learn to read English before getting on my case.

[Dave Kreskowiak]

And what does that have to do with what I said??

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject

How to debug small programs
Dave Kreskowiak

[Dave Kreskowiak]

Your question will only get opinions for an answer. The answer all depends on who you ask. I hate it because it isn't explicit. It requires you to know how the compiler is going to behave.

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject

How to debug small programs
Dave Kreskowiak

[Colborne_Greg]

That's the compiler and libraries used for the code.

[Colborne_Greg]

It is only one line of code, broken into multiple lines via the _ character.

<System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
Private mLastUpdated As DateTime, mLastUpdatedBy As String, mClearanceRequired As Int64, mClearanceIsRequired As Boolean

[Dave Kreskowiak]

Considering I wasn't commenting on that at all, your post makes no sense. I was merely commenting that the compiler is never responsible for supporting the application, YOU are.

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject

How to debug small programs
Dave Kreskowiak

[Dave Kreskowiak]

So what? It seems like you're doing this and your looking for absolution from the community. Again, it's a matter of opinion and in a real environment with coding standards, what you've done may be outlawed.

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject

How to debug small programs
Dave Kreskowiak

[Fabio Franco]

I don't see any problem with it, as a matter of fact it actually reminds me of C++ member declaration.

To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia

[Dan Neely]

"It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength."

Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt

[Gates VP]

At a first glance, I find this confusing. In particular because the DataMember attribute actually accepts a constructor parameter. - So if I set the constructor parameter, which field does it apply to? - Likewise, if you want to switch out serializers and use something like Protocol Buffers this syntax simply won't translate. You would need to break out each one as the constructor is required. - On top of this all, there's a mixing of types. I'm not a big fan of the "multi-declaration" syntax, especially when it doesn't save any actual lines like this example. But there are some cases where it is useful. That stated, if you're mixing types on the "multi-declarations", it's time split them out. I wouldn't call this "unacceptable" practice, especially in the context of firing someone over this. I would however call this "non-standard" and "confusing" and ask that it be changed.

[patbob]

Colborne_Greg wrote:

Coding practices is the topic

Coding practices are a form of communication to the next developer to assist them in their understanding of the code. There are no absolutes -- a syntax acceptable to one group might not be acceptable to another group. In general though, use of an oddball syntax in one place in the code is a poor practice. So, the only realistic answer to your question is "it depends". It depends on whether that's the common syntax used throughout the rest of the code, or an oddball one.

Colborne_Greg wrote:

Its valid code

I have three words by way of countering this line of thought: Obfuscated C Contest.

We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.

[Colborne_Greg]

I keep a common structure, thank you for a straight answer.

[Colborne_Greg]

This is what it looked like before

<System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
Private mLastUpdated As DateTime

    <System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
    Private mLastUpdatedBy As String

    <System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
    Private mClearanceRequired As Int64

    <System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
    Private mClearanceIsRequired As Boolean

The first example I wrote, stands on in the document, where writing datamember so many times with the word private seems to be a waste of space.

[Colborne_Greg]

Refrain for abusive comments

[Colborne_Greg]

right on

[Colborne_Greg]

White space. It's more important to people. Also as a programmer if you do not understand how a compiler is going to handle your code, you might consider another profession.

[Colborne_Greg]

I see yes the context of how someone takes a sentence is important. The code is flawless, again the question was about coding practices.

[Fabio Franco]

Gates VP wrote:

That stated, if you're mixing types on the "multi-declarations", it's time split them out.

They are clearly separated by lines, if they were in the same line, then I would agree with you. As I said in my reply, it resembles a lot C++ declaration like:

private:
int x;
double y;
.
.
.

The underscore even act as C++ semi-colon. It doesn't hurt readability as you can clearly see the types at the end of each line. I don't see any confusion, except that someone may be in doubt if the attribute applies only to the first variable or all of them.

To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia

[dg6yhw11]

I would say it is not acceptable because your intent is not clear, which makes the code difficult to maintain.

[Dan Neely]

Refrain from abusive code.

Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt