"dmolony"  wrote in message 
news:83c71906-5e75-461c-ad2a-8f40f1fc207d{at}i24g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>It's my personal preference to break multi-lines up. I just like it better 
>that way :)

The Mind plays its own strange tricks when writing in BASIC (as well as any 
programming language:) Regardless, combining multiple statements on the same 
line degrades the readability of any program regardless of language.

Back in the '80's when I moved away from BASIC with line numbers to compiled 
BASIC with sub-routines and functions, it had long become my personal 
preference to avoid using semi-colons because I absolutely hated needing to 
decipher one-liners. By that time I already wrote my BASIC programs (as well 
as my C and ASM programs, and all my other programs) first in Wordstar in 
non-document (text) mode, then in a programmer's editor. The program was 
first written in its entirety then tested and polished and not just thrown 
together in a haphazard manner.

I also commented my code, and followed standards, planned my programs, and 
polished the finished work before sharing it. Readability was a big issue 
with me and still is.

However, having mellowed a little with age, I now begrudgingly acknowledge 
that non-career programmers who write in BASIC with line numbers and use 
semi-colons and write programs ad-hoc and add lines and statements as an 
after-thought have a right to create unreadable spaghetti-code.

They are victims of the computer manuals and the computer manufacturers like 
Apple, IBM, and cbm who used semi-colons to save paper when listing example 
programs, and who by literally setting nothing but bad examples created a 
worldwide monkey-see-monkey-do epidemic of sloppy unreadable code.

Programmers who use multi-line statements where they do not add to the 
readability of a program should be pitied and not scolded. But then I am 
sure that others feel the same way about career programmers who feel 
strongly about the minutae of style and standards:)

Let's just say that I share the same personal preference and strongly agree 
with you. Your preference would seem to be a good one.

Bill
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