Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!hal!ncoast!allbery
From: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Latest indent request
Message-ID: <13240@ncoast.UUCP>
Date: 11 Dec 88 16:51:42 GMT
References: <17680@adm.BRL.MIL> <1748@solo3.cs.vu.nl> <9063@smoke.BRL.MIL> <810@quintus.UUCP>
Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery)
Followup-To: comp.unix.wizards
Organization: Cleveland Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, Oh
Lines: 59

As quoted from <810@quintus.UUCP> by ok@quintus.uucp (Richard A. O'Keefe):
+---------------
| In article <9063@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
| >In article <1748@solo3.cs.vu.nl> maart@cs.vu.nl (Maarten Litmaath) writes:
| >>gaspar@almsa-1.arpa (Al Gaspar) writes:
| >>\	if (test)
| >>\		{
| >>\		whatever;
| >>\		}
| >>What a DISGUSTING format!
| >
| >Most programmers I know that have tried vertical alignment of braces
| >for a while have come to prefer that to the style in K&R.
+---------------

A small comment here:  "vertical alignment" can also mean:

	if (test)
	{
		whatever;
	}

Which might be preferable to some people.

+---------------
| (book reference deleted)
| The use of braces in C is discussed on pages 111 and 117.  I use the "comb"
| style of layout (Ledgard's preference) because it makes sense in all the
| languages I use.
| 
| Ledgard is no more God than Henry Spencer, but I need a good reason to
| disagree with either of them.
+---------------

Actually, the indent format I find clearest is:

	if (test)
	  {
	    whatever;
	  }

It works in most languages I've used (including Lisp, in many cases), and
shows by indent level exactly what's going on.  The main problems I have
with it are (1) unless you use a very short indent (like 2 spaces above),
lines start wrapping or disappearing off the end of the screen rather
quickly; and (2) Jove isn't quite smart enough to handle it.  (On the other
hand, I have a patch to enable the C-indent hook in Jove; maybe I'll find the
time to get the Jove sources back onto ncoast and patch them.)

If this is what the above poster was referring to, my apologies; I don't
have much access to technical books, alas.

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery, comp.sources.misc moderator and one admin of ncoast PA UN*X
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