[p2edwards]

Agreed —

seeinglogic's article made me think of a 3rd option:

1. Sorta long functional chain where the type changes partway through 2. Use temp variables 3. (New option) Use comments

(Here's funcA from seeinglogic's article, but I added 3 comments)

    function funcC(graph) {
      return 
        // target node
        graph.nodes(`node[name = ${name}]`)
          // neighbor nodes
          .connected()
          .nodes()
          // visible names
          .not('.hidden')
          .data('name');
     }

Compare to funcB which uses temp variables:

    function funcB(graph) {
      const targetNode = graph.nodes(`node[name = ${name}]`)
      const neighborNodes = targetNode.connected().nodes();
      const visibleNames = neighborNodes.not('.hidden').data('name')

      return visibleNames;
    }

For me the commented version is easier to read and audit and it also feels safer for some reason, but I'm not how subjective that is.

[daotoad]

Funny, I see the need to add comments as an indicator that it's time to introduce chunking of some sort--arguably it already has been.

In this case, I'd lean towards intermediate variables, but sometimes I'll use functions or methods to group things.

I prefer function/method/variable names over comments because the are actual first class parts of the code. In my experience, people are a bit more likely to update them when they stop being true. YMMV.