Programming Perl

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8.4 Programming with Style

Each programmer will, of course, have his or her own preferences in regards to formatting, but there are some general guidelines that will make your programs easier to read, understand, and maintain.

The most important thing is to run your programs under the -w flag at all times. You may turn it off explicitly for particular portions of code via the $^W variable if you must. You should also always run under use strict or know the reason why not. The use sigtrap and even the use diagnostics pragmas may also prove of benefit.

Regarding aesthetics of code layout, about the only thing Larry cares strongly about is that the closing brace of a multi-line BLOCK should line up in the same column as the start of the keyword that started the construct. Beyond that, he has other preferences that aren't so strong. Examples in this book (should) all follow these coding conventions.

Larry has his reasons for each of these things, but he doesn't claim that everyone else's mind works the same as his does.

Here are some other, more substantive style issues to think about:


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