Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!maytag!watstat!dmurdoch
From: dmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu (Duncan Murdoch)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: formatting
Message-ID: <634@maytag.waterloo.edu>
Date: 16 Oct 89 00:28:04 GMT
References: <2526@hub.UUCP> <849@chyde.uwasa.fi> <2532@hub.UUCP> <2643@basser.oz>
Sender: daemon@maytag.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: dmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu (Duncan Murdoch)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 17

In article <2643@basser.oz> steve@basser.oz (Stephen Russell) writes:
>
>Unfortunately, this doesn't always work out. Most of the stuff posted
>to the sources groups is formatted in a style which I don't like (though
>I'm sure its authors think it's fine). It's tempting to just run it
>through a formatter to make it look just right for me. Problem is that
>when some patches are posted, I'm in trouble. The fact that the author
>and I are not "actually LOOKING at the same code" makes patching next
>to impossible.

I don't see this as a real problem:  if you modify the program, you can't run
the patcher; if you don't modify it, then why bother reformatting it?  If just
to get a readable copy to get some ideas from, then there's no reason to keep
the reformatted version after you've read it - you can always generate it
again from the original, anyways.

Duncan Murdoch