[TYPO3-core] RFC #16586: Refactor conditions in t3lib_extFileFunc

[Jigal van Hemert]

Hi Andreas,

Thank you for the effort to make TYPO3 better.

On 30-11-2010 13:41, Andreas Wolf wrote:
> Argh. Yes. The example is wrong. It should have been:
>
> after:
> if (!condition) {
>     $this->writeLog(...);
>     return FALSE;
> }
> foo();
> bar();

In these kind of case the Coding Guidelines [1] mention: "In general 
there should be a single return statement in the function (see the 
preceding example). However a function can return during parameter 
validation before it starts its main logic."

In the original code are already far too many return statements and your 
version adds many more :-(

Some suggestions to streamline these monster functions could be:
- move the checks to separate methods
- move the actions (move/copy/delete for files/folders etc.) to separate 
methods
- see if there are common parts which can be shared without expanding 
the code too much or make the code harder to maintain
- try to add unit tests so future modifications can be easily tested 
(shorter functions are easier to test because they contain less 
variations in results than large, complex functions)

Hopefully you're still motivated to contribute, but changes to monster 
functions are best done by splitting things up in parts which are easy 
to understand.

[1] http://goo.gl/WTjG5

-- 
Kind regards / met vriendelijke groet,

Jigal van Hemert
skype:jigal.van.hemert
msn: jigal at xs4all.nl
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