this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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It was literally like that. I had a script of about 310 lines and the main function was like 10-20 lines of code. I had a very nice Setup of objects that handled all functionality possible behaviours independent and so my main function was just receiving a user input from another function and add accordingly which included like 3-4 different scenarios that are being handled in the main function.

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[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 19 points 21 hours ago

I mean... that is just good design. The main function should be the initializer and orchestrator of the logic. You should be able to look at the main function and tell, at a high level, what the program is doing. It should be usually pretty basic and procedural. Other functions handle the details and complexity.

"Hmmmm. This codebase seems surprisingly lightweight."

Opens random 'Helper' class.

"Oh... Oh boy."

[–] bitcrafter@programming.dev 6 points 18 hours ago

Just be wary of writing ravioli code which forces the person reading your script to have to constantly jump around it in order to figure out what is actually going on.

[–] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 5 points 20 hours ago

Haskell also tends to have really small main functions, since the functional paradigm encourages splitting it up

[–] bss03@infosec.pub 6 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
[–] lwhjp@piefed.blahaj.zone 37 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's a beautiful feeling when everything is nicely encapsulated.

Its also very nice, when you spend hours writing everything else and then once all of it has been tested you write a few lines of code in the main function and 10 minutes later everything works as it should.

[–] seadoo@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 4 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

Here you go: https://gitlab.com/foss9293204/southpark-downloader

Keep in mind, this is in production code that works in a testing environment, but is not ready yet. Theres also almost no documentation.

[–] bitcrafter@programming.dev 3 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Is it normal to need an account to view code on GitLab?

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Idk, this is the first time I used gitlab in private (i literally just set up my personal gitlab account for this, since pastebin complained about some parts of the code).

Edit: It should be publically visible now: https://gitlab.com/Aipathon/southpark-downloader

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)
[–] bitcrafter@programming.dev 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Then sadly, the code shall remain a mystery for me.

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 2 points 15 hours ago

See my other edited comment.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In my case it was a script, but for libraries this would hold true too.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

"My Script" should be another dozen books the same thickness as main.

Not, I stress, for the sake of it, but for proper implementation of the suitable patterns for the application.

Well, it was really just a script that has exact one purpose. I just split it up beautifully, so that my main function is very short.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 day ago

Yeah, always found that weird as a junior. I basically never touched the main-function, because well, it set up some fundamentals and then called some other function or created some objects and then I was tweaking things somewhere below that.

Now that I'm a senior and taking over the lead of projects, I'm the person that touches the main-function and others generally do not. 🥴

[–] andioop@programming.dev 4 points 1 day ago

i have been summoned

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

How it should be.