Internal Consistency and the Repeat-TFL Paradigm: When, Why and How to Generate Repeat Tables/Figures/Listings from Single Programs
Tracy Sherman, Brian Fairfield-Carter · 2014
The concept of 'repeat' tables/figures/listings (TFLs), those being groups of 'similar' output that are understood to require less time and effort to produce than 'unique' TFLs, is probably familiar to most programmers. But even with the interest programmers have in improving efficiency and reducing maintenance overhead, it's surprising how often the relationship between repeat TFLs isn't exploited in code-writing. Perhaps this stems from inadequate planning (i.e. allocating work to a rapidly-assembled programming team without first assessing relatedness among TFLs), possibly combined with a lack of understanding of either the importance of grouping related output, or of the programming techniques that can be applied in producing repeat TFLs, but in any event we often see projects that follow a '1 table/1 program' (1:1) paradigm, and which treat each TFL in isolation. This paper illustrates the often-overlooked dangers inherent to the '1:1' paradigm, and proposes as an alternative that multiple repeat TFLs should be generated by single programs, not only as a means of improving efficiency, but also to safeguard quality (particularly with regard to consistency in style and in computational methods). Simple and practical tips for deciding when groups of TFLs should be treated as repeats are offered, along with an illustration of how to set up a single program to generate multiple repeats without adding significantly to program complexity.