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=0.7 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_RANDY autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,577df5d4a0e88785 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2000-12-14 04:30:07 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!sn-xit-01!supernews.com!upp1.onvoy!onvoy.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail From: Robert Dewar Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: RE: Bad coding standards Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 12:19:27 GMT Organization: Deja.com Message-ID: <91adsb$ipp$1@nnrp1.deja.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.232.38.41 X-Article-Creation-Date: Thu Dec 14 12:19:27 2000 GMT X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.61 [en] (OS/2; U) X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x71.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.232.38.41 X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDrobert_dewar Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:3119 Date: 2000-12-14T12:19:27+00:00 List-Id: In article , comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org wrote: > I'm not saying coding standards/style guides are > just aesthetics. Listen to me now. I'm saying > that "outside" of coding standards that specify > "which constructs to use" for given situations, you > are now in the realm of aesthetics. This seems a mistaken attitude to me. Yes you can argue like Humpty-Dumpty that words mean anything you want them to mean, but using the word "esthetics" too easily implies to too many people that it is just a matter of prettiness and not important. In considering the entirety of software performance, aspects which contribute to maintainability are much more than just a matter of being pretty. For me, an error in a comment, or a violation of a coding standard for layout is a bug in the code, and should be regarded as such. Warning: non-Ada diversion P.S. is aesthetics an allowable spelling in American english? I don't have an American dictionary at hand. The OED only permits the use of "e" or the ae letter which I can't even write in this ASCII character set, but does not permit a separate a and e character. Of course one could take the position that the use of ae in this crippled character set is merely a short hand for the ae character. It is interesting that daemon spelled with the ae character is a quite a bit different from demon with an e. There are positive and negative meanings of the word demon, and the OED specifically notes that people often use the a/e form to emphasize the positive meaning of an agent that intervenes in a positive way (that's the meaning that Unix tries to catch, rather than the negative meaning). Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/