Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!ucsd!rutgers!mailrus!uflorida!novavax!twwells!bill From: bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: A brace vs. indentation hypothesis Message-ID: <326@twwells.uucp> Date: 12 Jan 89 07:23:47 GMT References: <305@twwells.uucp> Reply-To: bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells) Organization: None, Ft. Lauderdale Lines: 54 Expires: Sender: Followup-To: Keywords: Ok, the results are in. From my original message: : Here's a hypothesis: there is a relationship between peoples' : preference for brace placement and the amount of space they use for : indentation. My belief is that the narrower the indentation, the : greater the perceived need to make braces visible; the wider the : indentation, the greater the desire to get those pesky things out of : the way. : : So, let's have a poll: : : 1) The number of spaces I indent is: ___ [columns] : 2) The braces are important for following : the control structure or setting it off: ___ [yes/no] Here is the raw data: spaces important 3 4 no 4 4 no 1 probably 7 yes 5 1 probably 8 1 no 2 probably 2 yes The probably's are from people who weren't explicit about their answer but whose message suggests that they believe the braces to be important. Marking "probably" as "yes", here is the data: P(no) = 41%, P(yes) = 59% spaces important 3 4 no 0 yes 100% no 0% yes 4 4 no 8 yes 33% no 66% yes 5 0 no 1 yes 0% no 100% yes 8 1 no 4 yes 20% no 80% yes Combining the 3,4,5 lines: spaces important 3,4,5 8 no 9 yes 47% no 53% yes 8 1 no 4 yes 20% no 80% yes To summarize the data in English: people who use the shorter indentations are about evenly split on the issue of the importance of the braces. People who use a full tab stop, by and large, believe that the braces are important. (I was the only exception.) In other words: there may be a relationship but, if so, it is exactly opposite from my belief. (Glug. Glug.) One more belief down the drain. (Gurgle.) --- Bill { uunet!proxftl | novavax } !twwells!bill