Below is a snip of code. You'll notice the programmer often puts a ; after a }.
looking like };
Is this a style thing or does it serve a function?
--snip--
void loop()
{
int incomingByte=0;//create and initialize a local variable
//The "then" part of the following will only execute
// after you have sent something to the Arduino
if (Serial.available() > 0) {
// read the incoming byte:
incomingByte = Serial.read();
// say what you got:
Serial.print("I received: ");
Serial.print(incomingByte, DEC);
if (incomingByte==102) {boFast=true;
Serial.println(", code for f. LED will wink fast.");};
if (incomingByte==115) {boFast=false;
Serial.println(", code for s. LED will wink slowly.");};
if ((incomingByte!=102)&&(incomingByte!=115)) {
Serial.println(". Only lower case s and f do anything.");};
}
//The following happen every time you pass through "loop"
if (boFast) {fastwink();};
if (!boFast) {slowwink();};
};
I'm not the most accomplished programmer around (actually I'm a hardware engineer so I like to think I have an excuse), but that code just didn't read well.
I learned what I needed to learn from it but it took some effort.
if (incomingByte==102) {boFast=true;
Serial.println(", code for f. LED will wink fast.");};
if (incomingByte==115) {boFast=false;
Serial.println(", code for s. LED will wink slowly.");};
if ((incomingByte!=102)&&(incomingByte!=115)) {
Serial.println(". Only lower case s and f do anything.");};
This would be better as a "switch" statement:
switch (incomingByte) {
case 'f':
// no { } needed after case
boFast=true;
Serial.println(", code for f. LED will wink fast.");
break; // Important to have break at end of every case
case 's':
boFast=false;
Serial.println(", code for s. LED will wink slowly.");
break;
default:
// This is run if none of the cases matched. It must be the
// last case in the list.
Serial.println(". Only lower case s and f do anything.");
break; // This break technically isn't needed.
}
The only thing that I could think of is that they might be using a different compiler... They might be not using optimisation and inserting a "}" charactor to see what the compiler does line by line...
If there was no reason for it, you should stop getting code off that person.
It's more than "not required." It does something specific (creates an empty "statement") that is sometimes quite wrong. For example, the following will produce compile errors
if (a == b) { serial.print(a); };
else { serial.print(b); };
I'm not the most accomplished programmer around (actually I'm a hardware engineer so I like to think I have an excuse)
I've often wondered how much this kind of attitude, which is fairly prevalent in both professions (hardware engineering vs. software engineering), has actually hampered progress in both fields...?
This isn't a unique situation; in many human endeavors this kind of competition, rivalry, and specialization - and the attitudes it engenders - has led to a lack of progress that was only broken when those involved worked together, and tried to understand and learn from each other the skills and knowledge that they individually lacked.
Its an ever greater tragedy when it comes to anything related to computers and computer science; the inter-relatedness of hardware and software is such that to me, it makes no sense to specialize in one or the other. IMHO, I believe you honestly can't understand and know one of the sides without understanding and knowing the other; they are the inseparable sides of a coin, so to speak.
Finally, I believe that the understanding of the history of computation, as well as the possible (likely?) future of it, is something that none of us should ignore.
that it was very hard to be masterful in all aspects of the realm.
IMHO too many software only guys seem to only think of the world as only true and false, high and low, on or off. While the hardware guys understand that natural variations and tolerances means you can only hope to be within nominal limits. ;D
