From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,15890893c0618a8a X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: rlk@rational.com (Bob Kitzberger) Subject: Re: [Q] Tools for Ada Quality and Style Date: 1996/05/01 Message-ID: <4m860r$2c5@rational.rational.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 152451220 references: <9604301327.AA12571@eight-ball> organization: Rational Software Corporation newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-05-01T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar (dewar@cs.nyu.edu) wrote: : However, I must say, I don't like ANY tools that mess with what I type. : Even tiny ones! If you rely on even tiny tools to clean up your sources, : it means that you are tolerating at least for a limited time, untidy : sources, and I think the best path to uniformity is to foster an : attitude that just can't *stand* to look at code that is not properly : formatted. I also can't stand to look at code that is not properly formatted. HOWEVER, I also think it is a waste of programmer's time to format text! Tools solve this problem quickly -- an integreated editor and pretty printer (of course, that's the approach we take with Apex, where you can use either the Apex editor or emacs. Code is "ugly" while I type it, but only for a matter of seconds until I hit the "F9" key). I can live with that brief moment of ugliness, for at the tap of a key it is all made pretty and consistent -- MUCH faster than I can do it myself. I _used to_ care about lining up all procedure parameters just so, etc. But that's quibbling about trivia; the important thing is that a formatting convention be consistent, not that it line things up just so, IMHO. Tools ensure that consistency with minimal overhead. I'm a little surprised, Robert, that you don't prefer the tool approach. (in a previous life, I worked on a project that was under the gun to get a feature set ready for demonstration that week. I had finished a device driver and handed it over to another engineer who needed to get it working with his error simulation stuff -- demo the next morning. I checked in with him in mid-afternoon, and he didn't have things working yet -- he was REFORMATTING MY CODE BY HAND). -- Bob Kitzberger Rational Software Corporation rlk@rational.com http://www.rational.com http://www.rational.com/pst/products/testmate.html