Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 13:11:32 -0700 (PDT) From: Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com> To: John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> Cc: FreeBSD current users <current@FreeBSD.org>, "David O'Brien" <obrien@FreeBSD.org>, Julian Elischer <julian@elischer.org> Subject: Re: Seeking OK to commit KSE MIII Message-ID: <200205302011.g4UKBWvS068552@apollo.backplane.com> References: <XFMail.20020530105952.jhb@FreeBSD.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
: ...
:}
:
:Instead of:
:
:if (foo)
:{
: ...
:}
:
:However, the real pain here is that basically people go and modify code
:they aren't even touching. If you are modifying the condition of an if()
:but not the body then the extra braces are just gratuitous. You did this
:when you went and pushed down Giant in a bunch of the syscalls adding {}'s
:around code you weren't directly touching. Basically then it is rather
:tempting to just back them back out again in the next commit to that area
:of the code and we keep cycling back and forth which is pretty stupid.
:
:I would just prefer that we leave code as it is unless we actually require
:the extra braces because there are multiple statements in the body. If
:you will commit to that I will commit to not removing extra braces that
:offend my sensibilities in my commits. :)
:
:--
:
:John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> <>< http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
:"Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/
I will adjust bracing on code that I am working on. It is hardly
gratuitous. It makes it far easier for me to read and that's important
because I don't like to miss things in the code I'm working on.
You seem to think that the 'wasted vertical space' is a bad thing, as if
human beings are, what, compilers? We are human beings. It is far more
important for the code to well commented and readable, not squeezed
together like a jack in the box in a way that only the original author
can parse. It does not make anyone's life easier trying to read
uncommented third party code and it certainly does not give one a
quicker understanding of a piece of code just because its been squeezed
together to all fit on one screen. I find squeezed code to be almost
*UNREADABLE*, in fact. It takes me far longer to understand a bit of
squeezed code then it does for me to understand well-braced and commented
code.
From my point of view, anyone who is working on a piece of code to
improve it has a right to make adjustments to the syntax, within
reason, to make it easier to understand and operate on the code. If we
try to impose one specific, set-in-stone way of doing things on the
entire developer base we end up with lost interest and a lack of
evolution in the code.
I can only repeat that when you try to apply a rule unconditionally,
even to minor, unremarkable things, and let that govern your expectations
in life, that the only result you will get is friction and a lessening of
interest in the project. It's like crying wolf over and over again.
Save your arguments for the cases where it really matters and you might
get better results.
I'm going to leave you with one more comment. I have been thanked on
many occassions by engineers and programmers working for all sorts of
companies that delve into the FreeBSD kernel. They have thanked me
for providing clear comments and readable code that has allowed them
to come in blind and quickly ramp up their understanding of our kernel and
their ability to modify it. A lot of what I do I do not because *I*
need it, personally, but because it helps the myrid engineers, sysops,
and others who work with our system. You may not appreciate it but
plenty of others do and frankly I find that to be far more important
then the occassional merge of otherwise unmaintained code between the
BSDs. I've heard the 'easier to merge with other BSDs' argument many
times, but as far as I can tell the extra work involved pales in comparison
to the time saved by all the third parties that use or work on the FreeBSD
kernel. Using the argument blindly as a justification to stop code
evolution is just plain a dumb idea.
-Matt
Matthew Dillon
<dillon@backplane.com>
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200205302011.g4UKBWvS068552>