🚀 go-pugleaf

The following is part of a small pile of material I put together for
Logo `filofax pages', which were eventually distributed by the British
Logo User Group.  Anyone who wants to incorporate these into an FAQ or
similar document is welcome.  I don't claim these hits are all original,
but that doesn't mean you won't find them helpful. 

This is posting 1 of 2

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Programming hints

Keep your procedures short.  Each procedure should do
exactly one job.  A procedure of more than ten lines is
too long.  Give procedures and variables names which
suggest their purpose.  Use comments to explain what's
going on.

Avoid using goto and make commands in procedures.  Code
which contains these instructions is very much more
difficult for other people to interpret.  Use recursion
in preference to while or do until.  Store facts in the
data base rather than in global variables.

Keep a notebook.  Write down successes, failures and
ideas that occur to you.  Skim it from time to time as
a source of starting points.

Test low level procedures first, then test the
procedures that depend on them, and so on.  When you
have written a program that works, revise it from time
to time.  Look for tidier and briefer ways to achieve
the same objects, and for other classes of problem
which your program might be able to handle.

Be patient. If you get stuck, go away from the computer
and think about something different: don't sit and hack
in the hope that something will come right.  See if you
can solve the problem in some simple cases, or in a
more general case.  Try another way of representing the
data.  Avoid thinking how you would solve the problem
in BASIC or PASCAL.  This will often put you on the
wrong tack, because Logo's style is different.

Back your disks up from time to time, to protect
yourself against accidental damage to your working
disks.

Join the Logo community.  Read the literature, go to
local events and talk to people.

Remember, if all else fails - READ THE MANUAL.



















-- 
////  Advice to dieters:          ////  Ken Johnson, A I Applications Institute
////    Never eat more than       ////       80 South Bridge, EDINBURGH EH1 1HN
////    you can carry.            ////                 E-mail ken@aiai.ed.ac.uk
////               -- Miss Piggy  ////     phone 031-650 2756  fax 031-650 6513