Re: [PATCH v2 3/6] sha1_name: avoid Yoda conditions

From: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Date: Apr 30, 2013, 22:45 UTC
Message-ID: <CAMP44s26oZf0=xdqp5sr_J1TNhK83=88A7KH5n_LnstFe6o5gA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <7vobcvabxi.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 5:30 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

Show 32 quoted lines

> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 5:13 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 5:00 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>>>> What is a Yoda condition?
>>>>
>>>> ---
>>>> Using if (constant == variable) instead of if (variable == constant),
>>>> like if (4 == foo).
>>>>
>>>> Because it's like saying "if blue is the sky" or "if tall is the man".
>>>
>>> That is an invalid analogy, as the sentences do not make sense.
>>>
>>> A much better explanation I heard on this list is that people do not
>>> say "If 1 is smaller than the number of your wives, you have a big
>>> problem".
>>>
>>> I actually was not asking why people find the convention to visually
>>> align comparison with number lines unusual. We discussed this style
>>> long time ago on this list.  I haven't heard the "Yoda condtion"
>>> expression and was asking about the "Yoda" part.
>>
>> It's popular culture.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoda
>
> I know who Yoda is.  What I was puzzled with was what it has to do
> with "if blue is the sky" (which is a bad analogy for "if (0 < len)"
> anyway)?

Yoda speaks in reverse "Stopped they must be; on this all depends". "if (0 < len)" says "if zero is less than len", which is in reverse, as reverse as "if 1.50 is taller than you". It's all reversed: "if you are taller than 1.50", "if len is greater than zero", "They must be stopped; all depends on this".

I don't understand what is not clear.

-- 
Felipe Contreras