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Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2003 17:32:00 -0500
From: Wesley Groleau <wesgroleau@despammed.com>
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Organization: Ain't no organization here!
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Subject: Re: Case dependence and coding standards
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Date: 2003-06-04T17:32:00-05:00
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Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> Wesley Groleau <wesgroleau@despammed.com> wrote:
> : Rational's pretty-printer as of 4.2 can vertically align all of:
> : 
> : :=  in  out  =>  :  --    (although it's still not perfect)
> 
> Tabular	layout	may	or	may	not	be	an
> advantage	,	I	am	still	eager	to
> hear	arguments	,	other	than	tired	programmers
> liking	the	tidy	look	of	it	.
> 
> Georg

First, I mentioned that it can vertically align
a certain set of symbols in source code, not all
words in English prose.

Second, source code does not contain multiple
words in prose style.

Third,

     Variable : Variable_Type;  -- does the one thing
     Another_Variable : Another_Variable_Type; -- does the other thing

IS a table in nature:
   first column      - object name;
   second column     - object type;
   third column      - clarification;
   column separators - ':' and '--'

Makes sense to me to write it like one:

     Variable         : Variable_Type;         -- number of doohickies built
     Another_Variable : Another_Variable_Type; -- the current one built here

Same meaning to the compiler, MUCH easier on the human reader.
Notice that I never intended screwing up the comments as your
strawman suggests.

There is precedent for doing the same thing even in prose.
Look at the section starting with uppercase IS.  When I was
a technical writer, I would never have handed to the editor
something like that formatter like this:

IS a table in nature: first column is object name, second
column is object type, third column is clarification, and
the column separators are the colons and the double hyphens.