🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4l4ls7$coh@fountain.mindlink.net>, <genew@mindlink.bc.ca> writes:
> davej@apertus.com wrote:
> >You may "always indent your code properly" but what about when you are
> >working on a large project with 6 or 20 other engineers?   Have you
> >ever worked on a project where you share development code with others?
> >What if the company you work for has standards that don't allow your
> >method?
>      Yes, I have waded through others' code.  The big problem is that
> it is someone else's and not yours i.e. things are not done as you
> expect.  

This is a very strong argument for coding standards.

> Extraneous brackets and such get me wondering if I might have
> missed something and thus waste time.
>      If the company has different standards?  Well, then I can't use
> my standard there, can I?  If it's too much trouble, I'd leave.  

You'd leave your job if the company made you put braces around single
statement conditionals????

> Let me reverse the question.  Suppose the company insists that you do
> things my way.  What do you do?

Do things your way.   IMO, one of the top abilities in a programmer is
being flexible.   If you can't read either style, quickly, you're going
to miss a lot of deadlines.   This also promotes good teamwork as every
piece of code you pick up will be similar in structure and flow - saves
time and energy for everybody.

It still remains my opinion that the extra braces may eliminate future
unforseen problems, agreed basically due to carelessness, but they do happen.
If the company said "don't use 'em", I'd state my case and do what they 
told me - they own the code I write, not me.

> >IMO, if you're relying on indentation to indicate program flow, you're
> >just asking for trouble, and lots of it.
> 
>      Why?  Since I rarely use gotos, the indentation does a fine job
> of showing the flow.  Did you mean something else?

No, just that indentation is great for readability but doesn't mean much
to a compiler, at least in C.

>      I follow my standard very strictly.  It is not a complicated one
> and it is usable on multiple languages.
>      Anything can be screwed up.  (Fools are so ingenious.)  I refuse
> to take responsibility for someone else mucking up my code later.  I
> do not write obfuscated code and if the maintainer can not read clear
> code, he shouldn't be modifying it.  I particularly refuse to take
> responsibility for a future supporter so bad that he can't balance
> braces.  That's the least of his worries in a real program.

I guess I read this as you don't like to work in teams and are very
possessive about your code.

> >>      Extraneous braces cause pause.
> >       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >???
> 
>      It takes time, a bit, but still time, to realize that the braces
> are extraneous.  

Ahhh, I misunderstood the "cause pause".   I thought you were referring
to some runtime pause, not a comprehension/readability pause.  Sorry.

> I would hate to have to maintain garbage like the above and would 
> change it as soon as I could to save myself time and trouble.

I once thought that way.  It was my first job out of college 11 years
ago.   I learned to adapt and become flexible, it just made my work life
easier.

Cheers,
Dave Johnson