Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 18:32:42 -0800 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: invalid opcode <coredump@nervosa.com> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Message-ID: <7397.825561162@time.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 28 Feb 1996 16:51:43 PST." <Pine.BSF.3.91.960228164926.21883C-100000@nervosa.com>
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> This is from /usr/src/linux/Documentation/CodingStyle, it's Linus' own > personal coding style. Am I the only one here who finds this, ultimate I suppose.. I don't know, there are a few things he says which I agree with and a few I don't. I like 4 column tabs and think that 8 is just a waste of screen real-estate. I have no problem seeing the indentation levels with 4 column offsets and can only conclude that Linus needs glasses on that one. As to multiple levels of indentation, I personally like to set my limit at 4 before I start looking at the loop or if chain suspiciously, but that's just me. If somebody else likes 6 or 8, WTF.. I do agree with Linus that the K&R formatting standards are the One True Way, however, and still use them to this day. I figure it's the book that taught most/all of us to program in C, and if we emulate its style then we can at least read eachother's code without barfing up long segments of intestine. Well, that's in theory, anyway. If we're yawning in technicolor, it at least won't be from the indentation. I've seen code that I had to run through indent just to be able to *parse* it correctly, and that's no fun. The bit about functions spanning no more than 2 screens isn't even really Linus's doctrine, either - you'll find that point of view expoused in a number of C++ books when talking about determining the proper balance of abstraction. For what it's worth, I too find that the demands imposed by keeping most functions below 2 pages has a good effect on my overall program design. Where I might ordinarily just write out a procedure linearly to save time, I'm forced to break the problem at some reasonable point and create another level of logical abstraction. Conversely, when my functions start getting only 3 and 4 lines long as a general rule, I know I've gone out of control and need to stop with the friggin' abstraction already! :-) Jordan
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