aark (10/25/82)
Has anyone in this newsgroup ever read "Gulliver's Travels?" In the island of Lilliput, Gulliver is told that some time in the past, the emperor decreed that all the subjects must crack their eggs at the little end. Many, however, preferred to crack eggs at the big end, and stalwartly refused to obey the decree. War ensued, and the Big-Endians were eventually expelled to the neighboring island of Blefescu, leaving the Little-Endian partisans in control of Lilliput. Lately this newsgroup has been deluged with articles telling why one standard for placing braces in C code is better than another. There are basically four camps, distinguished as follows: if (expr) { if (expr) { statements statements } } if (expr) if (expr) { { statements statements } } I'm not Jonathan Swift, so I can't write some biting satire about how useless the "C Brace Question" (read: "Big-End - Little-End Question) is. If a style standards committee feels they must dictate which of the above to use, I would recommend that they print out this article, tack it to the wall, and throw a dart at it. If the dart lands within one of the above examples, put that in the standard; if it lands elsewhere, don't mention where to put braces at all. (Yes, I know there's a lot more area to hit outside the examples than inside them.) I just wish people would discuss some more substantial issues in this newsgroup. I'm not going to tell you the camp to which I belong, Alan R. Kaminsky Bell Laboratories, Naperville, IL ...ihps3!ihuxe!aark