Coding Horror: Death to the Space Infidels

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001254.html

by Anon84 • 17 years ago

9 19 17 years ago

jhawk28• 17 years ago

Formatting is so complicated because it is very subjective. People see Python and complain that they can't format it to their "specific" tastes, but it would save so much time if they just were consistent across the project. Things like version control merging and code readability.

DanielBMarkham4• 17 years ago

At least he's got enough sense to go braces-stand-alone

Those who hang the opening brace at the end of the line are the ones that drive me nuts.

biohacker422• 17 years ago

Why do people do that?! Seriously, why?

benreesman• 17 years ago

I do that because I write a lot of JavaScript and semicolon insertion will mess you up if you don't make a habit of putting the opening brace on the end of the line. I suppose I could have two different styles but that sounds like an even worse option.

DanielBMarkham4• 17 years ago

I have no idea who started it but it's whacked.

You don't know when you see one line indented if it is a line continuation or conditional logic (or both) And god help you if you accidentally delete one of those opening braces -- it's impossible to spot sometimes unless you look closely.

makecheck• 17 years ago

In at least one language (TCL), the interpreter cannot detect the block unless the brace is at the end of the line. Granted, I hate TCL as a language, so I won't defend it...but if someone were accustomed to moving between TCL and other things, they may tend to retain this habit.

jcl• 17 years ago

The typical arguments are that the indentation style is more compact vertically and that it is used in a number of popular publications and projects (e.g. K&R, the Linux kernel).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentation_style#K.26R_style

mechanical_fish• 17 years ago

The Java style guide from Sun does this:

http://java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/html/CodeConventions.doc5....

The PEAR PHP coding standards recommend this:

http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.php

And, as has been pointed out, if you don't do this in Javascript the JS interpreter will helpfully insert bugs for you (in the form of extra semicolons).

When Ruby uses braces at all, opening braces are placed at the ends of lines. (Usually the closing braces are on the same line, though... most multi-line Ruby blocks use the "do...end" keywords.)

The issue doesn't come up in Python at all, right? Likewise Lisp.

So it seems that only programmers who take up C as a first language will be exposed to the opening-brace-on-its-own-line style before they become used to the other style.

DanHulton• 17 years ago

I use an IDE that allows code folding. With opening braces on their own line, I get:

  function bob()
  {
  --------------

On the same line as the function, I get:

  function bob() {
  ----------------

Much cleaner. Plus, I don't worry about being able to match braces against each other, I have an IDE that does that for me. (When my cursor is against one brace, it's partner is highlighted.)

jrockway• 17 years ago

I disagree that formatting is important. I can read code written in any style, and I don't find it much harder than reading my own. I think the problem is that most programmers don't read much code, they only write it. That's the problem, not how many spaces you indent stuff.

(If I am working on a project with other people, indentation style is the least of my worries. There are a lot more pressing issues to worry about.)

baha_man• 17 years ago

If you mean it's not important which particular style you choose, well yes, that's exactly what the article is saying.

mcormier• 17 years ago

Feature request for Paul Graham. After we get so much karma on our account could you give us some simple blacklist ability so we can filter some of these sites that always go to the top for every post they produce.

ConradHex• 17 years ago

Someone could write a greasemonkey script...

Coding Horror: Death to the Space Infidels

Related Stories