RE: [Devel] comment formatting - unneeded slashs and asterisksconsidered harmful

[Graham Asher]

Werner,

thanks for your reply:

<<<<<<
As mentioned earlier, I prefer consistency everywhere.
>>>>>>

There is such a thing as too much consistency, I think. It can give the
impression that we all have to breathe in and breathe out at the same time
;-)

And consistency everywhere is an impossible dream. Different people have
different coding styles, however you format their code.

<<<<<<
The same with tabs -- I've removed them all and I ask you not to use them.
>>>>>>

Sorry - that was a mistake. I tried setting my editor to expand all tabs to
spaces, but it is horribly annoying to use, so I've been doing it manually.
It would be better if there were a setting to tell it to expand tabs to
spaces only when saving the file, and convert to tabs on loading - but there
ain't.

<<<<<<
> Surely the FreeType formatting rules can be relaxed to allow this
> sort of comment? Can Werner or David explain exactly how it would
> harm the FreeType project?

No harm at all, but we haven't finally decided how the new format
should look like (just keep on ranting on this subject :-).  As soon
as we've come to a decision, all source files will be formatted.
>>>>>>

Okay, but my real idea is *not* to impose my own format, but to suggest ways
in which formatting rules can be relaxed slightly. It is possible to allow
both boxed and unboxed comments. Also, is it *really* necessary to have a
rule about whether you write

if (x)

or

if(x)

or

if ( x )

?

I think not. It doesn't make any difference to readability, and you can
happily allow all styles. By all means have a compulsory indenting scheme,
but please don't go much further than that.

Semantics, of course, is much more important than style, and that applies to
comments too. As I have said many times, one must make it as easy as
possible to write and update comments, so that there is no deterrent to
keeping them correct. That means no unwanted asterisks and slashes, and, as
far as possible, plain text.

Best regards,

Graham