[falcolas]

Personally, if I'm reading the code, seeing `maxRetries` is more meaningful than 5. `maxRetries` both abstracts away the 5 (which could change at whim), and makes it so I don't have to parse the surrounding code to identify exactly what that loop is doing (unless it's not working, in which case I have to parse that loop anyways).

It also encourages you (for better or worse) to use `maxRetries` in multiple places.

The value of 5 is, in the long run, meaningless. It could have easily been 3 or 10.

[bryanlarsen]

But what if maxRetries is 0 or 1000? (I've seen both). That really changes the meaning of the code you're reading.

[falcolas]

1000 doesn't change the meaning at all - it's still retrying a block of code some finite number of times. 0 does change it a bit, but only in that the code is not being executed, not that there is suddenly no retry logic which exists in the code.