Survey Results - How important is formatted code?

honey the codewitch4-Jan-22 5:14

4-Jan-22 5:14

When I get unsatisfactorily formatted code, I'll do a "reformat run", and format every single document on a single check in to keep the source control churn to a minimum. It's a minor inconvenience. In practice I don't like your formatting. I don't like that person's formatting over there, either. I don't even like my formatting half the time. I'm picky*, but also lazy. Laugh | :laugh:

So I just expect reformatting as part of the development process.

*And I get pickier when I'm on a team - at that point I'll go in and change my VS autoformatting settings to match the in house style.

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Org style overrides language style.

OriginalGriff2-Jan-22 22:35

OriginalGriff

2-Jan-22 22:35

So the hideous "java standard" of

Java

if (a == b) {
    foo();
    } else {
    bar();
}

can be rightly thrown in the bin to match C / C++ / C# styles:

Allman

if (a == b) 
{
    foo();
} 
else 
{
    bar();
}

or better

Whitesmiths

if (a == b) 
    {
    foo();
    } 
else 
    {
    bar();
    }

And make code written in any language consistent across a whole codebase.

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Re: Org style overrides language style.

Chris Maunder3-Jan-22 1:44

Chris Maunder

3-Jan-22 1:44

I find myself styling my VBScript the same as SQL the same as Python, and after endless TypeScript start formatting C# with brackets on the same line and I start slipping into using expression-bodied properties.

Somedays I do wish there were just one language...

cheers
Chris Maunder

Re: Org style overrides language style.

OriginalGriff3-Jan-22 2:14

OriginalGriff

3-Jan-22 2:14

Yeah, but it would probably end up being QBasic, and then fragmenting from that ... Big Grin | :-D

Re: Org style overrides language style.

Dan Neely5-Jan-22 7:25

Dan Neely

5-Jan-22 7:25

Meanwhile I can go back and forth between same and new line opening { all day long as I switch between C#, and Java or Javascript.

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Re: Org style overrides language style.

Nemanja Trifunovic3-Jan-22 2:20

Nemanja Trifunovic

3-Jan-22 2:20

And then you apply your beloved C# style to Javascript and get some crazy bugs[^].

Just follow the language convention, or even better, use a lint/formatter to do it for you.

utf8-cpp

Re: Org style overrides language style.

OriginalGriff3-Jan-22 2:35

OriginalGriff

3-Jan-22 2:35

Or better, avoid Javascript altogether ... Big Grin | :-D

Re: Org style overrides language style.

Member 123124664-Jan-22 9:14

Member 12312466

4-Jan-22 9:14

Your "better" reflects my view of how things should be formatted. I really dislike both the other alternatives you show.

Although I prefer languages that use words BEGIN and END (I first used Algol nearly 50 years ago) rather than { and } (which are less easy to see - although a modern IDE will highlight and should match them) they should be indented at the same level as the content of the bracketing. After all the block with the brackets is syntactically equivalent to a single line statement which would be indented.

Re: Org style overrides language style.

OriginalGriff4-Jan-22 9:20

OriginalGriff

4-Jan-22 9:20

That's why I use it: Indentation style (Whitesmiths) - Wikipedia[^]

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Option	Votes	%
All source code should be formatted according to a generally accepted style for that language	369	51.83
All code in my org must be formatted to our org's style guide	190	26.69
All code within a single project should be consistently formatted	314	44.10
All code, everywhere, should be formatted to a single style, as much as a given language allows	67	9.41
Code should be neat and readable. That's good enough.	210	29.49
Format your code however you want, I'll format my code how I want	56	7.87
I really don't care how code is formatted.	16	2.25
Responses	712
Respondents were allowed to choose more than one answer; totals may not add up to 100%