Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!snark!eric From: eric@snark.UUCP (Eric S. Raymond) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: Source formatters -- not the "right" solution Message-ID: Date: 24 Dec 88 18:25:37 GMT References: <847@unh.uucp> Organization: Benevolent Space Xist Retirement Home Lines: 18 In article <847@unh.uucp>, jeff@unh.UUCP (Jeffrey E. F. Friedl) writes: > What could be done is (oh boy, Yet Another Bright Idea): a questionnaire > could be made addressing various points of style. From responses, one > could publish _Style_Today_, a book citing what _is_ used today. Not why, > or what should be used, but what _is_. Then we could all see where we stand > and go from there (or stay where we are -- whatever). I'm sort of working towards this; see article . I'm trying to encourage a structured, value-neutral discussion of why people make particular layout choices so we can build a sort of decision tree or graph representing the space of possible layout rules. I want to do this because I think a look at the next level up (the formation of the unconscious metarules that steer you to a given spot on the graph) might yield really interesting information about the 'microlevel' of how human beings do code. -- Eric S. Raymond (the mad mastermind of TMN-Netnews) Email: eric@snark.uu.net CompuServe: [72037,2306] Post: 22 S. Warren Avenue, Malvern, PA 19355 Phone: (215)-296-5718