
Writing Rules to Disregard - daddy_drank
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/02/01/three-writing-rules-to-disregard/
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jaclaz
The (funny) classic reference being:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16422686](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16422686)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16429640](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16429640)

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war1025
I've rarely seen those three rules followed by anyone in normal writing.

Usually when I see someone strictly adhering to those rules (particularly not
ending a sentence with a preposition), it sets of a warning flag that the
writer is trying too hard to follow imaginary rules, and maybe isn't someone
whose opinion I want to take much stock in.

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geoelectric
Wonder what the equivalent "Coding Rules to Disregard" might be.

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marcosdumay
If you know of any coding rule that is universally true, I'd like to hear.

Maybe... Don't use goto to jump to the middle of a different block of code? I
don't know any exception to this one, but it's also prohibited on all modern
languages, so I don't think it's a "coding rule" anymore.

~~~
SamReidHughes
Oftentimes if you have some hairy code, the best option is to use a goto, make
a commit or leave a note, and then clean it up later, in a separate commit.
It's more bisectable and leaves a more readable diff. I'm pretty sure I've had
occasion to jump into the middle of a loop as the point of entry. Duff's
device is a case of this.

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yesenadam
My favourite wikipedia rule: _Ignore all rules_.

"If a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ignore_all_rules](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ignore_all_rules)

Some explanation of what it's meant to mean, with a selection of quotes about
breaking rules:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_%22Ignore_all_r...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_%22Ignore_all_rules%22_means)

I really like that page - so well-written. "Use common sense. ...There is no
common sense." In fact, the wikipedia pages about rules are much better
written and more enjoyable to read than the average article is - which seems
odd, but I guess is how it should be. There are a lot of very funny pages
about the rules.[0] Many essays, on every aspect of wikipedia, here:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Essay_directory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Essay_directory)

(A lot of the titles and short explanations on that page are
fascinating/funny, a great intro to wikipedia culture...as it should be.)

[0] e.g.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Essay_directory#Humo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Essay_directory#Humorous_material)

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dctoedt
This is an example of how the HN rule about stripping out the "Three" in the
title has resulted in ambiguity: I thought the term "writing rules" was
present-participle verb + object, but it turned out to be gerund-as-adjective
+ noun. (I might have the grammatical labels wrong.)

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yesenadam
True - you were hoping for advice in the construction of rules that everyone
would ignore. (A bit masochistic.)

