Re: [PATCH] git-mv.perl: use stderr for error output and cleanup

From: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date: Jan 6, 2006, 22:38 UTC
Message-ID: <7vek3lq8wu.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <81b0412b0601050349s6bec1a36jc410fd315fbbc4c@mail.gmail.com>

Alex Riesen <raa.lkml@gmail.com> writes:

> It is cleaned up in the "Perl' meaning" of process: trivial loops
> replaced with map{}

I agree with dies and warns, but I am slightly negative about this one.

> -	foreach my $fileName (@deletedfiles) {
> -		print H "$fileName\0";
> -	}
> +	print H map {"$_\0"} @deletedfiles;

Although there is always one more way to do the same thing in Perl, and there are good idioms that make well written Perl programs very compact and clear, I tend to value readability for (competent) programmers whose native language happens to be something other than Perl.

I think using map{} to build a list to be printed without inter-element spaces is far less intuitive than how the code was originally written for non Perl readers. Using join("\0", @df) might be easier to read but you would then need terminating NUL, and either one of the following are worse:

  do { local ($") = "\0"; print "@deletedfiles\0" } # this one is buggy
  do { local ($\) = "\0"; print for (@deletedfiles); } # impossible to read

So I'd prefer not touching for (@df) { print H "$_\n" } loops.