Randy Abernethy created THRIFT-2626:
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Summary: Apache Thrift needs a simple Style Guide for each language
Key: THRIFT-2626
URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/THRIFT-2626
Project: Thrift
Issue Type: Improvement
Components: Documentation
Affects Versions: 1.0
Environment: all
Reporter: Randy Abernethy
Priority: Minor
Problem
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When editing Apache Thrift source files I often find myself faced with a range
of tab and space based indentation schemes, various approaches to line
termination (semicolon, no semicolon), code blocking (curly braces left
aligned, opening curly brace following control statement), commenting
approaches, etc. In such an environment it is impossible to "emulate" the
existing style because there is not one but several. The problem does not
subside because we provide no guidance. This leads to inconsistent code which
is at best hard to read and at worst prone to errors. Attempting to repair such
issues creates big diffs that can be hard to review.
Proposal
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Provide a language by language style guide to improve consistency with respect
to indentation, line termination, commenting, code blocking and other simple
but important facets of the sources.
Discussion
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Most development efforts have some form of basic style guide to encourage code
consistency. Even open source projects. Apache Thrift spans a wide array of
languages (to say the least) making style something that can not be mandated at
the project level (e.g. Python has very different style consideration than
C++). Therefore any style guidance will need to be language by language. We
should avoid dogma but provide guidance. For instance the Apache Thrift Python
style guide might be as simple as "follow PEP 8". Once style guidance is in
place (perhaps a single web page with a few global notes and then a very brief
section for each language) new languages would have to provide a patch to the
style guide before having their libraries committed.
Establishing initial style guides could be done unilaterally by the primary
committer for each language. Then open debate can take place as needed. In any
case all new commits would be required to conform with the style guide,
allowing progressive convergence.
Interested in what the community thinks about this topic.
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