About style

About style

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

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].

That said, I still know how it's difficult to try to define an Ada  
Standard Style which would please everyone.

-- 
Si les chats miaulent et font autant de vocalises bizarres, c’est pas pour  
les chiens.

“I am fluent in ASCII” [Warren 2010]

Re: About style

[Bill Findlay]

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;

Re: About style

[Adam Beneschan]

On Mar 4, 2:50 pm, Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)
<yannick_duch...@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].
>
> That said, I still know how it's difficult to try to define an Ada  
> Standard Style which would please everyone.

There may be a standard style that gets accepted.  But given how long
written English has been around and how long it took for the standards
to be developed, I wouldn't expect an Ada Standard Style to be
finalized for about 1,000 years.

                                         -- Adam

Re: About style

[Randy Brukardt]

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
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"Adam Beneschan" <adam@irvine.com> wrote in message 
news:dada95be-b6f0-4b7b-a5f3-6bc0b6914f04@i39g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
On Mar 4, 2:50 pm, Yannick Duch�ne (Hibou57)
<yannick_duch...@yahoo.fr> wrote:
...
>> That said, I still know how it's difficult to try to define an Ada
>> Standard Style which would please everyone.
>
>There may be a standard style that gets accepted.  But given how long
>written English has been around and how long it took for the standards
>to be developed, I wouldn't expect an Ada Standard Style to be
>finalized for about 1,000 years.

That depends on how much you are including in your style. Although it isn't 
that well known, the Ada standard recommends a style for layout of syntax 
and capitalization of identifiers. (The style that the syntax productions 
are shown in is intended to be the suggested layout of the syntax -- it's 
not as random as it seems!) So in one sense there literally already is a 
Standard Ada style.

Of course, most people tend to go much further than that in defining style 
rules. That surely isn't going to be agreed on until there is only one Ada 
programmer left -- and perhaps not even then...

                                       Randy.

Re: About style

[Vinzent Hoefler]

Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57) wrote:

> 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].
>
> That said, I still know how it's difficult to try to define an Ada
> Standard Style which would please everyone.

True, yet I like the quote, because I always liked the idea that program
text should read just like any book. And that doesn't include violating
typographical conventions just for the sake of violating them.

That said, one of my colleagues likes to align semicolons at the end of
declaration, this then looks like that:

|A : Integer               ;
|B : Float                 ;
|C : A_Very_Long_Type_Name ;

Almost makes my cry each time I see it, yet there's nothing in our
coding standard that forbids it. I sure looked. :)


Vinzent.

-- 
A C program is like a fast dance on a newly waxed dance floor by people carrying
razors.
   --  Waldi Ravens

Re: About style

[Hyman Rosen]

On 3/4/2011 5:50 PM, Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57) wrote:
>> 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].

If you ever check out Language Log (a linguistics blog among whose
contributors are Ben Zimmer, who took over the recently canceled
On Language column in the New York Times Magazine) you will discover
that they generally despise The Elements of Style.

<http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2922>

(If you think people on c.l.a. get cranky sometimes, you should see
the above for a dose of real crankiness :-)

Re: About style

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

Le Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:56:59 +0100, Hyman Rosen <hyrosen@mail.com> a écrit:
> (If you think people on c.l.a. get cranky sometimes, you should see
> the above for a dose of real crankiness :-)
No I don't. I just believe people here oftenly have strong opinions; you  
may yourself look cranky to someones ;) like I probably do... every one  
with an opinion is exposed to be cranky to someone. Added the fact that  
Ada is enough to make you looks cranky to many ones, and you get an idea.

This was my “Cheese!” of the day :)

-- 
Si les chats miaulent et font autant de vocalises bizarres, c’est pas pour  
les chiens.

“I am fluent in ASCII” [Warren 2010]