Flight planning spreadsheet

John Clonts wrote:


Yes, it is a big problem-- that is, until you're mind is sufficiently
expanded that you look at software in a whole new way and the parenthesis
"dissolve" into the background. It's almost a kind of a "magic-eye" sort
of
thing, IYSWIM. Good luck, hope you eventually "get it"

Indentation is your friend.

Actually, this is related to an aviation topic: CRM. Why do some pilots
highlight their route on a chart? Because this makes it far easier for the
human eye to locate the route when first looking (back at) the chart.
Absent this, various forms of mental processing are required. This takes
time and effort.

In programming, we've the same opportunity to do things in a way that
reduces the need to "think" over trivia. Indentation is one good example.
Whether you're programming in a C derivative (in which case you must match
braces), a LIST derivative (parens), a language with BEGINs and ENDs, or
anything else, doing this "matching" involves work. Proper indentation
makes this much easier, as a lexical block is made visually "obvious".

It's the equivilent of highlighting the route.

Most modern editors will indent automatically, and even using colors or
graphical markers to further enhance the display of the code. Using one of
these is like shifting to the use of a moving map GPS.

- Andrew