Best Practices

Ron Hudson ron.hudson@sbcglobal.net
Tue May 24 03:59:00 GMT 2005


Hi,

I am teaching myself C by writing programs. I have some questions about 
proper practices..

1) How do I know when to break my program into separate files. I am 
currently working on a Star Trek program. It has 4 or 5 large 
functions. They are all in one file.  It's only about 900 lines right 
now.

2) Should I take something that is only used in one place in my program 
and
make it a function on it's own?

3) What should I do if I have a set of functions I use in many of my 
programs.. for instance, a randomize() for srandom()  and random() that 
reads /dev/random for it's seed.  (so far I use it in two program and I 
have just cut and paste it between) another example would be a whole 
setup of
#define statements that I use to work with ANSI console stuff.

(I know I should probably use curses instead.. I am just learning 
curses)

4) Are global variables really bad?  Why?  In my star trek program I
have two arrays that are used everywhere. They contain "reality".
Passing them in to each function would be a problem.



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