3.2 Overview: MUF (cont'd)

Organizing Your Code:

Recall that MUF is a `structured' language: as long as the statements in a function are in the same order, reading top to bottom and left to right, and as long as they are separated by whitespace, it doesn't matter how you place them on the page. `Whitespace' is any combination of spaces, tabs, or line breaks.

Instead of...

  : main
        
       me @ "Hello, world!" notify
       
       "mink" "otter" "linsang" 
       
       pop pop pop
  ;

We could have written...

  : main me @ "Hello, world!" notify "mink" "otter" "lingsang" pop pop pop ;

Or even...

  : main me 
                          @ 
                                       "Hello, world!"           
     notify "mink" 
                                        "otter" 
     "linsang" 
                              pop 
               pop 
                        pop
  ;

All three versions would mean the same thing to the compiler, would use the same amount of memory, and would be executed in exactly the same way. To most people, however, the first version would be much more clear. Arrange your code in such a way that its format illustrates or reinforces logical relationships (that is, combine things that go together and separate those that don't).

MUF is not case sensitve: POP, Pop, and pop would all be treated the same way. Capitalization, therefore, can be used as another way to format code. For example, you might choose to capitalize all function names and begin all variable names with lower case to concisely indicate their difference. Some coders use all capitals for primitives. This does clearly indicate their difference, but many people find all caps less readable than upper-lower case. Choose your own style, but remain consistent within a program.

Now we'll (completely) rewrite tinker.muf several times, with each version introducing an important aspect of MUF programming. The > signs and other formatting information have been omitted from the remaining examples, so you can cut and paste from this file into the one you're working on.