Can anyone tell me if it is relatively an easy process for an experienced
coder (not me) to convert a php script to mainly functions/classes.
I have my own script that i would like to make more streamlined as it is
becoming very difficult to work with.

25/08/06, Peter Lauri <lists (AT) dwsasia (DOT) comwrote:

It should not be to big of a problem if you can set your mind into
thinking
about functions and objects instead of a step by step script. Then just
cut
it in pieces and your are done :)

Agreed. If it puts you on the good foot, send an extract from your script
and I will give you an indicator of where to start.

Hi Bigmark,

Bigmark schrieb am 25.08.2006 11:39:
Can anyone tell me if it is relatively an easy process for an experienced
coder (not me) to convert a php script to mainly functions/classes.
I have my own script that i would like to make more streamlined as it is
becoming very difficult to work with.

it's not impossible, but can take a lot of time to pick the script to
pieces and get it converted to a script (ore more coherent scripts) with
functions and/or classes.
It depends on the script itself.

Greets
Mourad

Bigmark,

I have been involved in the evolution of the development process and
architecture called functional normalization. I do intend to post some
detail on this at funkifunctions.blogspot.com very soon.

Anyhow, using this method might help you some what. The trick being to
look through your script and see if the same thing is being done in more
than one place. For example, if you find a piece of code that converts
a string into a URL and that piece of code is REPEATED through thes
script, then place that code in a function and replace the instance of
the code with function calls.

a period of time you will see more and more of your code turn into
functions. this process has started you will be able to predict to
some extent what new pieces of code could be re-used in this way and
hence write them as functions also.

This approach has proved to be extremely successful in advancing the
careers and coding practices of developers inside and contractors to the
project network (www.project-network.com).

If you would like, I am very happy to take a script from you and convert
it over to functions. I will also let you know when more material on FN
is posted to the blogsphere.

As for classes. I would recommend avoiding thinking about these yet.
Function level re-use is a better start discipline that class level
re-use IMH I know this is an contentious issue. Having been an avid
programmer for many years I have evolved away from this, other people
have different views (yes really, I did a lot of work with
Java/Weblogic/C++/iTCL etc etc etc - please don't flame - not interested!).

For more thoughts on what I don't like about :

Best wishes and good luck

AJ

Mourad Boulahboub wrote:
Hi Bigmark,

Bigmark schrieb am 25.08.2006 11:39:
>Can anyone tell me if it is relatively an easy process for an experienced
>coder (not me) to convert a php script to mainly functions/classes.
>I have my own script that i would like to make more streamlined as it is
>becoming very difficult to work with.
>>

it's not impossible, but can take a lot of time to pick the script to
pieces and get it converted to a script (ore more coherent scripts) with
functions and/or classes.
It depends on the script itself.

Greets
Mourad

Friday 25 August 2006 04:39, Bigmark wrote:
Can anyone tell me if it is relatively an easy process for an experienced
coder (not me) to convert a php script to mainly functions/classes.
I have my own script that i would like to make more streamlined as it is
becoming very difficult to work with.

That really depends on the nature of the code. I've some code I have to work
with now that is built around dumping all kinds of stuff into the global
namespace, even from functions. If I ever manage convince the author what an
insanely bad idea that is, it will still be hell to fix because of the way
it's built.

Most code probably isn't quite that bad, though. Your code could already
break down into functions quite nicely, or it could be easier to just start
from scratch. No way to tell without seeing the code.

Larry,

I have hit similar global names space issues in the past and it is a
pain in the behind!

remedial method that can get it stable enough to start to work on is
to stick the whole messy lot into classes (NT BJECTS!) and then the
global name space becomes the local namespace (ie $MyVar becomes
$GarbageCode::MyVar).

you have done this, you can put accessors functions around the
class local variables. This means that all new code calls the accessors.

$newVar=GarbageCode::GetMyVar();

Thus, if you improve the internal representation of the garbage code,
code outside the old garbage code will no longer be impacted by the change.

From an FN point of view, you are reducing the access to the variable
to a single function point rather than many function points distributed
throughout the code base.

Cheers

AJ

PS - if you knew all this before hand - please accept my apologies :-)

Larry Garfield wrote:
Friday 25 August 2006 04:39, Bigmark wrote:
>Can anyone tell me if it is relatively an easy process for an experienced
>coder (not me) to convert a php script to mainly functions/classes.
>I have my own script that i would like to make more streamlined as it is
>becoming very difficult to work with.

That really depends on the nature of the code. I've some code I have to work
with now that is built around dumping all kinds of stuff into the global
namespace, even from functions. If I ever manage convince the author what an
insanely bad idea that is, it will still be hell to fix because of the way
it's built.

Most code probably isn't quite that bad, though. Your code could already
break down into functions quite nicely, or it could be easier to just start
from scratch. No way to tell without seeing the code.

I don't know what I was on when I wrote the previous post!

In php you cannot create static class variables in this way (doh) or at
least I never have managed. So when faced the this problem I replace
what in C++ would be a class variable with a class function

comme ca:

class MyClass
{
function MyVar($val = null)
{
static $datum;
if(is_null($val))
{
return $datum;
}
$dataum=$val;
}

}

I definitely need more coffee!

AJ

Alex Turner wrote:
Larry,

I have hit similar global names space issues in the past and it is a
pain in the behind!

remedial method that can get it stable enough to start to work on is
to stick the whole messy lot into classes (NT BJECTS!) and then the
global name space becomes the local namespace (ie $MyVar becomes
$GarbageCode::MyVar).

you have done this, you can put accessors functions around the
class local variables. This means that all new code calls the accessors.

$newVar=GarbageCode::GetMyVar();

Thus, if you improve the internal representation of the garbage code,
code outside the old garbage code will no longer be impacted by the change.

From an FN point of view, you are reducing the access to the variable
to a single function point rather than many function points distributed
throughout the code base.

Cheers

AJ

PS - if you knew all this before hand - please accept my apologies :-)

Larry Garfield wrote:
>Friday 25 August 2006 04:39, Bigmark wrote:
Can anyone tell me if it is relatively an easy process for an
experienced
coder (not me) to convert a php script to mainly functions/classes.
I have my own script that i would like to make more streamlined as it is
becoming very difficult to work with.
>>
>That really depends on the nature of the code. I've some code I have
>to work with now that is built around dumping all kinds of stuff into
>the global namespace, even from functions. If I ever manage convince
>the author what an insanely bad idea that is, it will still be hell to
>fix because of the way it's built.
>>
>Most code probably isn't quite that bad, though. Your code could
>already break down into functions quite nicely, or it could be easier
>to just start from scratch. No way to tell without seeing the code.
>>

Sat, 2006-08-26 at 12:49 +0100, Alex Turner wrote:
I don't know what I was on when I wrote the previous post!

In php you cannot create static class variables in this way (doh) or at
least I never have managed. So when faced the this problem I replace
what in C++ would be a class variable with a class function

comme ca:

class MyClass
{
function MyVar($val = null)
{
static $datum;
if(is_null($val))
{
return $datum;
}
$dataum=$val;
}

}

I definitely need more coffee!

Talking about coffee your above code could use some. Try this:

<?php

class MyClass
{
function MyVar( $val=null )
{
static $datum;

if( $val null )
{
return $datum;
}

$datum = $val;
}
}

?>

But also I'd recommend fixing the the problem whereby you
can't set $datum to the null value, otherwise you may run
into unexpected issues down the road.

<?php

class MyClass
{
function MyVar( $val=null, $set=false )
{
static $datum;

if( $set false )
{
return $datum;
}

$datum = $val;
}
}

?>

Cheers,
Rob.