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The Hard-Core Coder

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The Hard-Core Coder

Tag Archives: defined values

Abusing #define in C

19 Friday Nov 2021

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in Stories

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

code clarity, computer code, computer programming, defined values, readable code

When I was a callow young programmer learning the ropes and enjoying the sheer power of the C language, I got a bit carried away with the macro pre-processor’s ability to let you redefine the language.

As much fun as that is, and as much as it can make your source code look cool, it’s a really bad idea. At some point the folks in comp.lang.c read me the riot act about it, and they were right.

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The Thing About Constants

16 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by Wyrd Smythe in CS101

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

constants, defined values, global constants, literal values, literals, named constants, named values, numerical constants, P.J. Plauger, string constants

Along with “always use less-than” is another great piece of always advice, except this one is a prohibition, a never rather than an always (same thing, really, from a programmer’s point of view).

It has to do with never having literal values embedded in your code!

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Wyrd Smythe

Wyrd Smythe

The canonical fool on the hill watching the sunset and the rotation of the planet and thinking what he imagines are large thoughts.

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