scs@adam.pika.mit.edu (Steve Summit) (01/05/89)
I'll not enter any of the indentation or other program formatting polemics; they'll never end and we won't learn much. I will note my displeasure that this nonsense is masquerading under the subject of "style." A program's layout is a very small (though not unimportant) facet of what we call "good programming style." The "style" of a book refers to the author's word usage, sentence structure, and so on; the width of the margins and the format of the paragraphs is a function of someone called a "book designer," and (unless it is done badly, which is not the same as done "wrong") the layout is hardly crucial to our reading enjoyment. Just as eliminating gotos will not magically render a contorted program comprehensible, applying anyone's One True Indenting Style to a fundamentally flawed piece of code will do little to help it. I'm starting to have to skip articles that have "style" in the subject line, to avoid these interminable indentation ramblings, and I'm afraid I might miss an article on "real" style, a subject I'm vitally interested in. If you must flog the already thoroughly lifeless indentation horse further, do me a favor and make sure that the Subject: line mentions "indentation," "layout," or "format," and preferably not "style." Steve Summit scs@adam.pika.mit.edu