Just a couple of loose remarks:
- Composition is a very powerful concept in programming:
- Write small, simple functions that you then combine into more complex pieces of software
- Functions you write can be used in other functions you write
- Function arguments are "positional" meaning that their order is important. The names, not so much.
- If you see a lot of duplication in two functions (as was the case with our
encryptanddecryptfunctions), it probably makes sense to try to "refactor" them. It's not always as easy as with our case. - There are always more that one way to solve a problem. That's fine. It's not always clear if one of them is the best one. Often what's best dependens heavily on the context:
- Do we want code that is easily readable and understandable, maybe even for non-programmers?
- Do we need to squeeze the last bit of performance out of this piece of code, because it's ran a trillion times a second on billions of machines? (Not likely but you get the idea)
- Does the code contain similar code that follows a certain style or structure?
- Do you have a clear preference because it makes more sense to you?