Re: [Q] Tools for Ada Quality and Style

[bobduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff)]

In article <4m860r$2c5@rational.rational.com>,
Bob Kitzberger <rlk@rational.com> wrote:
>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!

I agree.  But I also agree with Robert Dewar, when he says that pretty
printers tend to garble comments.  The problem is that comments, unlike
the rest of the language, have a rather loose syntax (i.e. no particular
syntax at all).  Perhaps the solution would be to nail down the syntax
of comments a bit better (while still remaining maximally flexible, of
course ;-) ).

>...  I checked
>in with him in mid-afternoon, and he didn't have things
>working yet -- he was REFORMATTING MY CODE BY HAND).

And why didn't the whole project agree on formatting conventions ahead
of time?  ;-)

- Bob