From: OFeem1987@teleworm.us   
      
   Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote this post by blinking in Morse code:   
      
   > On 25 Jan 2026 11:07:20 GMT, Stéphane CARPENTIER wrote:   
   >   
   >> That's why it's stupid to consider the best programmer as the one   
   >> who produce more lines of code than others.   
   >   
   > I once took a program of about 8000 lines of code, written by someone   
   > else, and cut its size in half.   
   >   
   > Actually the basic idea behind the simplification was very simple. The   
   > program was a plugin doing import and export of object definitions   
   > between the host application’s internal format and an external   
   > database. The import function was one gigantic sequence of handlers   
   > for all the database fields, which generated corresponding attributes   
   > for application objects, while the export function went the other way.   
   >   
   > What I did was replace the bulk of both functions with a single table   
   > of the correspondences between the two data representations. That   
   > shrank the import and export functions down to just a couple of dozen   
   > lines each -- they became just interpreters of table entries. I also   
   > found some discrepancies between the two original functions, which   
   > disappeared as a result of using the common table.   
   >   
   > This is called “data-driven” or “table-driven” programming. It’s   
   quite   
   > a common technique for reducing code size. Less code to write means   
   > less code to maintain going forward, and less opportunity for bugs to   
   > sneak in. Win-win.   
      
       "Show me your flowchart and conceal your tables, and I shall   
       continue to be mystified. Show me your tables, and I won't   
       usually need your flowchart; it'll be obvious."   
           -- Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man Month (1975)   
      
   --   
   Women, when they have made a sheep of a man, always tell him that he is a   
   lion with a will of iron.   
   		-- Honore' de Balzac   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)