Best Practices in Rev development

[Devin Asay]

On Jun 20, 2007, at 5:55 PM, Robert J. Earp wrote:

> I'm sure that even the most perfect code does not declare all local  
> variables as in the case of repeat loops, and practically speaking  
> declaring them has no benefit.  However, a MUCH more important  
> point is to name variables with something short and meaningful, and  
> if you do this with a "l" or a "g" as a first letter the code  
> becomes self explanatory.  We tend to keep a master list of  
> variables in a cross reference as we talk to external devices.   
> That helps too.
>
> Sorry Mark, I don't put code in separate handlers unless the code  
> is going to be used more than once.  Then the handler is stuck up  
> the project somewhere its  To always create two handlers just ends  
> up with unnecessary message passing (overhead).

I tend to agree on this one. My rule-of-thumb is "2-3"; in other  
words, if I need to execute the same code 2 or more times and that  
code is more than about 3 lines, I'll break the code out into another  
handler.
>
> Generally our projects are built by a group, so one other major  
> recommendation is to add lotsa comments to the code.  When I'm the  
> only one developing a stack it always seems a waste of time, but  
> with my brain it's saved me many times in the long run.
>
> Richard, didn't you publish a paper on recommended coding  
> standards?  If I remember correctly it was extremely valuable to  
> new and old developers alike, and well worth reading every year or so.

<http://www.fourthworld.com/embassy/articles/scriptstyle.html>


Devin Asay
Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
Brigham Young University