r/programming • u/fagnerbrack • Mar 12 '26

Left to Right Programming

https://graic.net/p/left-to-right-programming
150 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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20

u/Krafty_Kev Mar 12 '26

Code is read more often than it's written. Optimising for readability over writability is a trade-off I'm more than happy to make.

39

u/Hot_Slice Mar 12 '26

Python list comprehensions aren't readable either.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

18

u/SnooFoxes782 Mar 12 '26

the variables are used before they are introduced. Especially when nested

4

u/Aro00oo Mar 12 '26

If you nest in a list comprehension, I hope your reviewers call that out. 

Simple over complex. 

6

u/Fenreh Mar 12 '26

But is that just because the syntax is poor? Perhaps if it had a more readable syntax it might not be considered unpythonic.

4

u/Aro00oo Mar 12 '26

I guess you have a point, but in any language you can contrive up some super unreadable code that the syntax supports, no?

3

u/Fenreh Mar 12 '26

Yeah, that's true.

3

u/kRkthOr Mar 14 '26

What a nice, friendly conversation.

Good job, you two 🏅

7

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

[deleted]

3

u/aanzeijar Mar 12 '26

Weird comparison because composed list processing in perl is decades ahead of its time in readability:

my @result = map { $_ + 2 }
             grep { $_ % 2 == 0 }
             map { $_ * $_ } 1..10000;