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'lo Martin, |
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On Sunday 03 August 2003 4:18 pm, Martin Schlemmer wrote: |
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> On Sun, 2003-08-03 at 16:55, Stuart Herbert wrote: |
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> > On Sunday 03 August 2003 3:34 am, Mike Frysinger wrote: |
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> > > (2) do not use spaces for indenting ... tabs are the standard |
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> > |
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> > Then the standard is broken, and needs updating. |
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> |
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> Reasoning ? |
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Because, in any non-trivial piece of code, indents can end up being a mixture |
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of tabs and spaces, rather than just tabs. When this happens, and you use a |
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different tab size to the author, the indented code suddenly becomes a tad |
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unreadable. |
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This page puts it a bit better (and stronger ;-) than I can: |
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http://www.jwz.org/doc/tabs-vs-spaces.html |
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Additionally ... |
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There's no value in insisting on a particular indenting scheme. A good coding |
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standards document is a collection of technical review points to reduce the |
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number of defects that make it into a source control system. If a proposed |
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standard has no effect on the defect rate, it doesn't belong in the coding |
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standards document. Period. |
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(Stuff like epatch over patch technically belongs in the design standards |
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document - but it's common for design and coding standards to be combined |
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into a single document out of ignorance). |
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And, seeing as there's no formal peer review of code committed to CVS anyway, |
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<strong emphasis>you have no mechanism to enforce the entireity of any |
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proposed standard</emphasis>. Pitch the standard at stuff that actually |
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makes a difference (like epatch over patch). |
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If you really want to enforce an indentation standard, run CVS checkins |
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through indent or something. Automate the mother. That's how many |
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commercial organisations manage that type of problem. |
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Sorry, I've been handling these issues for too many years in the day job. |
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I'll take my SCM hat off now ;-) |
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Stu |
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-- |
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Stuart Herbert stuart@g.o |
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Gentoo Developer http://www.gentoo.org/ |
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Beta packages for download http://dev.gentoo.org/~stuart/packages/ |
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GnuGP key id# F9AFC57C available from http://pgp.mit.edu |
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Key fingerprint = 31FB 50D4 1F88 E227 F319 C549 0C2F 80BA F9AF C57C |
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-- |
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