On Saturday 09 June 2007 17:07, Melchior FRANZ wrote: > * Durk Talsma -- Saturday 09 June 2007: > > I've attached the configuration file, I've used for a few tests. Would it > > be an idea to base a coding standard on the basis of this? > > I would have been interested in this dicussion, but how can you > dare asking and *at the same time* starting to commit auto-formatted > files in a not agreed-upon style that is completely different from > the original style? Fait accomplis? > > m. >
Since not everybody in the development team may immediately realize what Melchior is referring to, let me add a little backstory. The start of this thread was motivated by indentation inconsistencies in a file that I was patching last Saturday. This file, AIModels/AIAircraft.cxx is one that I have been putting a considerable amount of work in in the past, and know quite well. In the past, we have had discussions on the use of autoformatting tools, but the general consensus was that most tools, in particular "indent", did not handle C++ (as opposed to plain old 'C') very well. However, that discussion was years ago, and I found this to be a good opportunity to start looking for a decent indentation tool again. I came across this little program bcpp, which I referred to in the beginning of the thread. After some tests, I sent out the email that started this thread. Then I ran bcpp on a copy of AIAircraft.cxx, and was -in general- very pleased with the new consistency. I double-checked the whole file by hand to see if there were any apparent inconsistencies, and when I determined the reformatted file was in a much better shape than the original one, I decided to go ahead an commit the modified version. After all, some people are rather pedantic about code formatting, so I figured these very people would be pleased by the new -tightly formatted- layout of the file. Unfortunately, accidents do happen, and it seems like this were the case here as well. Personally, I don't really have a strong preference for a particular indentation style, so I committed the file the way it was. Unfortunately, it seems that this heated-up Melchior to the point spontaneous combustion. The upside is that version numbers are cheap, and revision numbers are even cheaper. So, in the wake of this all, I have committed another revision in strict K&R/4 style, hoping that everybody would be happy again. Incidentally, the bulk of that reformatting was done using the astyle (artistic style) program that Norman Vine referred to. Let me emphasize that it is *not* my intention to reformat the entire code base. AIAircraft.cxx was functionally restructured anyway, as a consequence of the patch I was committing, so this was an ideal time to fix-up layout issues. Since this would require a lot of work anyway, I decided to conduct a limited scale experiment by evaluating some beautifier tools. Since the results were favorable in my evaluation, I decided to push ahead, and not let the results of the experiment get wasted. In light of the this, I would like to reopen the discussion again. In the past, it was decided not to use beautifiers, because of their inability to handle C++. But it seems like those days are gone. The tools that I did check out seem to be doing a good job on C++ code, and and can configured quite easily to do formatting into an acceptable style. For FlightGear, it seems like this would be Kernigan and Richie, using 4 spaces. (K&R/4) for each level of indentation. I still believe it's too early, to go with a general recommendation in favor of using a beautifier. However, I don't really see anything wrong with occasional use of one of these tools done by one of the regular committers, in particular when it's done in combination with a careful evaluation of the results and when circumstances favor such a reformatting. Cheers, Durk ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
