Re: About style

[Bill Findlay <news@findlayw.plus.com>]

On 04/03/2011 22:50, in article op.vruceftsule2fv@douda-yannick, "Yannick
Duch�ne   (Hibou57)" <yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> An quote from the JLint distribution, which is README says (JSlint is for
> JavaScript, but the quote applies well to Ada I feel) :
> 
> 
>> The place to express yourself in programming is in the quality of your
>> ideas,
>> and the efficiency of execution. The role of style is the same as in
>> literature. A great writer doesn't express himself by putting the spaces
>> before his commas instead of after, or by putting extra spaces inside his
>> parentheses. A great writer will slavishly conform to some rules of
>> style,
>> and that in no way constrains his power to express himself creatively.
>> See for example William Strunk's The Elements of Style
>> [http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/style.html].

This is doubly nonsense, of course.

1. Great writers create styles of their own, they slavishly conform to no
one else's imposed rules.

2. "The Elements of Style" is viewed with contempt by professional
linguists, for its inaccuracy and inconsistency, and for failing to follow
the very "rules of good style" that it prescribes for others.

-- 
Bill Findlay
with blueyonder.co.uk;
use  surname & forename;