Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!im4u!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!enea!tut!santra!news
From: news@santra.UUCP (news)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Style rules for C shops
Summary: You oversimplify the task of handling style conformance automatically
Message-ID: <12822@santra.UUCP>
Date: 12 May 88 08:15:27 GMT
References: <12120@santra.UUCP> <1962@bgsuvax.UUCP> <12567@santra.UUCP> <4043@killer.UUCP>
Reply-To: nbo@hutcs.UUCP (Nassim Bouteldja)
Followup-To: comp.lang.misc
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!im4u!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!enea!tut!santra!news
From: news@santra.UUCP (news)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Style rules for C shops
Summary: You oversimplify the task of handling style conformance automatically
Message-ID: <12822@santra.UUCP>
Date: 12 May 88 08:15:27 GMT
References: <12120@santra.UUCP> <1962@bgsuvax.UUCP> <12567@santra.UUCP> <4043@killer.UUCP>
Reply-To: nbo@hutcs.UUCP (Nassim Bouteldja)
Followup-To: comp.lang.misc
Lines: 26

In article <4043@killer.UUCP> loci@killer.UUCP (loci!clb) writes:
>In article <12567@santra.UUCP>, news@santra.UUCP (news) writes:
>> In article <1962@bgsuvax.UUCP> denbeste@bgsuvax.UUCP (William C. DenBesten) writes:
>> >>The ideal solution, it seems to me, would be to have a beautifier that
>> >puts all the code into your company style, just before you freeze the
>> >code.  Of course, if you don't trust the beautifier, you could write a
>> >...
>> That sounds like a nice solution, except that there are certain styles
>> that a beautifier cannot produce. For instance, how do you ...
>> What do you do with too lengthy procedures? 
>
>	The obvious solution to "how do ...": write a pre-processor
>	to do exactly what you want. ...

I can hardly imagine a pre-processor that can break-up my lengthy procedures
into small manageable ones that carry out the original functionality that
I wanted. It would have to understand what the program is doing, and that
is not yet possible even using the current state-of-the-art of Artificial
Intelligence.
I reiterate my view of the issue: I am concerned about the effect of style 
on readability of a program. Some style characteristics, like identation,
can be generated automatically, even differently each time according to a
script that suits the reader. On the other hand, factors like the length of
a procedure, can be checked automatically to be reported to the programmer
in whom lies the responsibility to re-arrange his code in a more readable
way.