| Ara.T.Howard@noaa.gov 2004-12-15, 3:59 pm |
| On Wed, 15 Dec 2004, Randy Howard wrote:
> In article <Pine.LNX.4.60.0412091344190.21479@harp.ngdc.noaa.gov>,
> Ara.T.Howard@noaa.gov says...
>
> You do realize that indent supports command line parameters and
> configuration files so that you can change the default behavior to one that
> makes more sense?
yes. exactly my point. it's so EASY to reformat c code to whatever your
fancy that it's inane to complain about formatting. in vim (which my mailer
uses) a 'shift-v, shift-g, !indent' does the trick. my experience is that
coding styles can be adapted to quite quicky no matter how 'different' they
might seems at first. what matters is not the style per se but the
consistency. formatting code by hand is simply evil for this reason. do what
you like - but do it automatically. anyone that has ever scripted massive
code modifications or generation can attest to the value of this. in general
i've found that styles that promote ease of cutting/pasting (without creating
bugs due to dropped braces) and searching to be the best. readability is
learned quickly - generally in under two days - so what 'makes sense' in my
opinion is using a style that reduces bugs. i think that what 'makes sense'
for usenet is to post using the most recent version of the most common
formatter available without switches or configuration files (yes i do use
one myself) because nothing else, in my mind, can possibly be considered any
sort of 'default'.
kind regards.
-a
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