Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Code Project
  1. Home
  2. The Lounge
  3. When did syntax become so fussy?

When did syntax become so fussy?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
question
38 Posts 30 Posters 0 Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • C Offline
    C Offline
    Chris Maunder
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

    MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
    {
    "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
    "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
    _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
    });

    Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

    cheers Chris Maunder

    Greg UtasG R J C M 22 Replies Last reply
    0
    • C Chris Maunder

      Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

      MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
      {
      "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
      "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
      _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
      });

      Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

      cheers Chris Maunder

      Greg UtasG Offline
      Greg UtasG Offline
      Greg Utas
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      Trying to save all the above, show how clever language designers can be, and burn out everyone else's brain cells trying to keep up with, and parse, all this shite.

      Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
      The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

      <p><a href="https://github.com/GregUtas/robust-services-core/blob/master/README.md">Robust Services Core</a>
      <em>The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.</em></p>

      H S 2 Replies Last reply
      0
      • C Chris Maunder

        Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

        MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
        {
        "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
        "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
        _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
        });

        Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

        cheers Chris Maunder

        R Offline
        R Offline
        raddevus
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        I really like that you mentioned that. Just yesterday during a live coding session another dev was showing me how to do a thing. He used a C# anonymous function / lambda expression and was trying to get it right (and this was his code) and he was typing, backspacing, typing, backspacing...waiting for intellisense, typing waiting for intellisense... I was like, "yeah, functional programming...no one can remember the syntax..." We both laughed. :rolleyes: I mean regular old OOP and structured programming is really easy to remember and type actually. *youngster waves fist and starts..."Old man...!!!" I know. :sigh:

        M J 2 Replies Last reply
        0
        • R raddevus

          I really like that you mentioned that. Just yesterday during a live coding session another dev was showing me how to do a thing. He used a C# anonymous function / lambda expression and was trying to get it right (and this was his code) and he was typing, backspacing, typing, backspacing...waiting for intellisense, typing waiting for intellisense... I was like, "yeah, functional programming...no one can remember the syntax..." We both laughed. :rolleyes: I mean regular old OOP and structured programming is really easy to remember and type actually. *youngster waves fist and starts..."Old man...!!!" I know. :sigh:

          M Offline
          M Offline
          Mircea Neacsu
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          raddevus wrote:

          *youngster waves fist and starts..."Old man...!!!"

          ... older man smiles silently: APL :-D

          Mircea

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • C Chris Maunder

            Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

            MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
            {
            "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
            "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
            _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
            });

            Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

            cheers Chris Maunder

            J Offline
            J Offline
            Jon McKee
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            Maybe I'm the odd one out but I don't see the issue. It's an expression syntax instead of a statement syntax. Not to mention this syntax forces an expression as the body of a case section so if your intent is to return something then that is enforced, whereas the statement syntax doesn't care. I feel like it's the same difference and motivations between the ternary operator ?: and if-else. Expression vs statement. Something simple that yields a value vs something possibly complex that may or may not. Also you save space. 6 lines vs 15 lines ;P

            string x = "test";

            int y = x switch {
            "test" => 0,
            "test1" => 1,
            "test2" => 2,
            _ => 3
            };

            int z = -1;
            switch (x) {
            case "test":
            z = 0;
            break;
            case "test1":
            z = 1;
            break;
            case "test2":
            z = 2;
            break;
            default:
            z = 3;
            break;
            };

            W 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • C Chris Maunder

              Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

              MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
              {
              "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
              "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
              _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
              });

              Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

              cheers Chris Maunder

              C Offline
              C Offline
              Cp Coder
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              I used to feel the same way until IntelliJ IDEA showed me how to reduce a block of code to a single line using similar obscure syntax. (much to my surprise!) The Lounge[^]

              Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

              N 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • C Chris Maunder

                Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

                MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
                {
                "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
                "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
                _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
                });

                Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

                cheers Chris Maunder

                M Offline
                M Offline
                Mike Hankey
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                Because doing something guilelessly makes a person appear to be much cooler.

                The less you need, the more you have. JaxCoder.com

                J 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • C Chris Maunder

                  Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

                  MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
                  {
                  "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
                  "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
                  _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
                  });

                  Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

                  cheers Chris Maunder

                  P Offline
                  P Offline
                  PIEBALDconsult
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  Dennis Ritchie will haunt them.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • C Chris Maunder

                    Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

                    MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
                    {
                    "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
                    "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
                    _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
                    });

                    Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

                    cheers Chris Maunder

                    S Offline
                    S Offline
                    Slacker007
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    looks like a candidate for the Strategy design pattern.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • C Cp Coder

                      I used to feel the same way until IntelliJ IDEA showed me how to reduce a block of code to a single line using similar obscure syntax. (much to my surprise!) The Lounge[^]

                      Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

                      N Offline
                      N Offline
                      Nelek
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      Cp-Coder wrote:

                      Tonight I will have nightmares of vicious IDEs chasing after me to correct all my many mistakes!

                      Kind of mandatory[^]

                      M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • C Chris Maunder

                        Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

                        MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
                        {
                        "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
                        "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
                        _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
                        });

                        Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

                        cheers Chris Maunder

                        E Offline
                        E Offline
                        enhzflep
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        We're saving people that think they know better from ever bothering with the nonsense. Whether or not they're correct is another matter.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • C Chris Maunder

                          Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

                          MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
                          {
                          "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
                          "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
                          _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
                          });

                          Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

                          cheers Chris Maunder

                          M Offline
                          M Offline
                          Maximilien
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          ELI5 Anyone care to explain ? it looks like a switch.

                          CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • C Chris Maunder

                            Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

                            MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
                            {
                            "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
                            "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
                            _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
                            });

                            Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

                            cheers Chris Maunder

                            M Offline
                            M Offline
                            Marc Clifton
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            Personally I find that 1000x more readable than switch/case or if/else, and also tells me if I haven't implemented the default option, so more robust code.

                            Latest Articles:
                            Client-Side Type-Based Publisher/Subscriber, Exploring Synchronous, "Event-ed", and Worker Thread Subscriptions

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • Greg UtasG Greg Utas

                              Trying to save all the above, show how clever language designers can be, and burn out everyone else's brain cells trying to keep up with, and parse, all this shite.

                              Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
                              The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

                              H Offline
                              H Offline
                              honey the codewitch
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              Greg Utas wrote:

                              all this shite.

                              amen

                              Real programmers use butterflies

                              Greg UtasG 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • C Chris Maunder

                                Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

                                MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
                                {
                                "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
                                "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
                                _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
                                });

                                Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

                                cheers Chris Maunder

                                O Offline
                                O Offline
                                obermd
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                Terseness is the enemy of clarity. All programmers need to remember this. Programmers who use languages that encourage terseness need to be extra careful to not destroy clarity.

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • C Chris Maunder

                                  Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

                                  MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
                                  {
                                  "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
                                  "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
                                  _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
                                  });

                                  Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

                                  cheers Chris Maunder

                                  L Offline
                                  L Offline
                                  Lost User
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  It's part of the "how much can I pack into one LINQ / SQL statement" school of obfuscation.

                                  It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it. ― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • H honey the codewitch

                                    Greg Utas wrote:

                                    all this shite.

                                    amen

                                    Real programmers use butterflies

                                    Greg UtasG Offline
                                    Greg UtasG Offline
                                    Greg Utas
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    But you understand it! :laugh:

                                    Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
                                    The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

                                    <p><a href="https://github.com/GregUtas/robust-services-core/blob/master/README.md">Robust Services Core</a>
                                    <em>The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.</em></p>

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • C Chris Maunder

                                      Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

                                      MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
                                      {
                                      "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
                                      "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
                                      _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
                                      });

                                      Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

                                      cheers Chris Maunder

                                      G Offline
                                      G Offline
                                      Gary R Wheeler
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      Chris Maunder wrote:

                                      Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax?

                                      No. There seems to be a modern prejudice against classic iteration (for, while) and conditionals (if). Somehow writing these same constructs as imperative statements is "more robust" and "less error-prone". Any construct that introduces a nested scope seems subject to this prejudice. Those imperative statements are only syntactic sugar supplied by the compiler. I have a hard time liking the new features in the last couple of major versions of C#. Most if not all of them seem to be this sort of syntactic sugar, and they don't really add new functionality. The features that make the most sense to me are those that let you omit specifying a type where the compiler can figure it out from context. That saves typing (even with IntelliSense) and time.

                                      Software Zen: delete this;

                                      J 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • C Chris Maunder

                                        Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

                                        MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
                                        {
                                        "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
                                        "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
                                        _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
                                        });

                                        Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

                                        cheers Chris Maunder

                                        P Offline
                                        P Offline
                                        pmauriks
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        Since vendors wanted to lock you in to their development environment rather than using the competition. Most people rely on autocomplete and suggestions for their coding. If you would prefer to use vim or another editor that doesn't do that - it makes it just that little bit harder. . . and once you are hooked, much less easy to move away . . . I may be paranoid - but it doesn't make me wrong.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • C Chris Maunder

                                          Paraphrased from Microsoft's own docs in order to make it readable

                                          MyMethod(options => _ = provider switch
                                          {
                                          "option 1" => options.Method1(x => x.Prop),
                                          "option 2" => options.Method2(x => x.Prop),
                                          _ => throw new Exception($"Unsupported option: {option}")
                                          });

                                          Are we really helping the Art with this type of syntax? I'm trying to work out what we're saving here. Keystrokes? HDD space? Screen real estate?

                                          cheers Chris Maunder

                                          M Offline
                                          M Offline
                                          Member 9167057
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          This particular way of typing things doesn't make terribly much sense, but it demonstrates how you can save syntax. The one method it demonstrates is a lambda, the other (and I think that's the point here) is a Switch expression. I know I miss the latter in my C++ project.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
                                          0
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Don't have an account? Register

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Recent
                                          • Tags
                                          • Popular
                                          • World
                                          • Users
                                          • Groups