hardin@hpindda.HP.COM (John Hardin) (09/23/88)
>Although a 'pretty' program like UNIX 'indent' may be very useful, >being in a professional programming environment has taught me one very >important thing - make the format of your programming so automatic >that you don't need a code formatter. Many years of experience of many >software engineers here have proven this to be true. If you have to >use a 'pretty' program, it has the possibility of screwing up your >intentions in some places instead of cleaning up your style. Also, using >a 'pretty' program tends to let you get sloppy in your style and this >will carry over into your coding practices. > > Dion Hollenbeck >---------- I heartily agree, but that doesn't mean you don't occasionally need a "pretty" program to fix up someone elses code to make it more readable. I've found that everyone seems to have a different idea about what consititutes "pretty" code. I suspect that some of these differences may be unresolvable because they come from brain physiology (e.g., left-brain/right-brain dominance, etc.). Might be nice if there were a customizable pretty-print program that would allow each of use to deal with code in a format suited to our individual needs. This might require a standard code file storage format that could be easily understood by everyone's personal pretty printer. Dream on... John Hardin hardin%hpindda@hplabs.hp.com _________
mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (09/27/88)
>The version we have is Copyright 1976 by Univ of Illinois, so I'm not >sure it's the same one, and Berkeley doesn't have rights to it. Three of >us have added features and documentation over the last seven years, and >it would be nice to be able to share it. Is that the one that rearranges a=+5; to a += 5; and afloat=.5; to afloat .= 5; by any chance? I'll call up the Chancellor's office and demand they make the little bugger (ouch!) public domain.
davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) (09/30/88)
In article <45900157@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu writes: | Is that the one that rearranges | | | a=+5; to a += 5; | | and | | afloat=.5; to afloat .= 5; | | by any chance? No, but almost as bad... a=+5 becomes a =+ 5, which compiles on our system. I think theres an option to do what you ask, but I can't find the docs handy and I set my default options file *years* ago... I expect to be able to post the "enhanced" version of this as soon as I change one more thing. I've been putting it off for about two years now, so this will be the push which gets it done. -- bill davidsen (wedu@ge-crd.arpa) {uunet | philabs}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me