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=-2.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,259541b8a8a12b6,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2000-12-20 14:20:23 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!nntp-relay.ihug.net!ihug.co.nz!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!fr.clara.net!heighliner.fr.clara.net!teaser.fr!enst!enst.fr!not-for-mail From: "Singlespeeder" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Bad coding standards - aesthetics are irrelevant Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 22:22:58 -0000 Organization: ENST, France Sender: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org Message-ID: Reply-To: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: marvin.enst.fr Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: avanie.enst.fr 977350814 45516 137.194.161.2 (20 Dec 2000 22:20:14 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@enst.fr NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 22:20:14 +0000 (UTC) To: Return-Path: X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Errors-To: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0beta5 Precedence: bulk List-Id: comp.lang.ada mail<->news gateway Errors-To: comp.lang.ada-admin@ada.eu.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:3296 Date: 2000-12-20T22:22:58+00:00 Much of the debate on aesthetics would be needless if there was a good freely available non-proprietary tool for reformatting the code, much like the C world has 'indent'. Then all you do is specify a company wide set of flags for the tool and insist that all code is run through the tool with those flags before checking it into the code libraries. This is not a new idea - check out 'Code Complete' by Steve McConnell for more debate on layout backed up by hard figures. Unfortunately bad coding style is more than mere aesthetics. As for markers in the code - surely the language standard itself need not specify them. Neither is there any reason why you or your company couldn't adopt html (or even xml) in your source code comments and then run the source through a tool similar to javadoc. Except you'd have to write the tool. None proprietary please. Nick Wallis