Variable instances (Re: Trace on Variable assignment)

[Sean Hinde]

> It's when you start having more than 3-4 changes of the same variable
> in the same function that it's easy to lose track.
> (Yeah I know it's a crummy way to write code in a single-assignment
> language, but I've run into so many examples where it's really tricky
> to come up with a better way.)

In my various peeks into the OTP sources I've grown quite used seeing the
Var0 Var1 Var2 progression, and also started to use it by default myself.

The issues brought up here seem to be readability and maintainability as
much as the avoidance of "potential" bugs of the kind noted in
application_controller. Maybe a note in some coding styles part of the
documentation (and/or new book) would go some part of the way to bring this
into the normal vernacular of Erlang, and help avoid Gats confusions.

http://www.erlang.se/doc/programming_rules.shtml#REF10726 could be updated
to start with..

- Sean



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