On 2026-01-28 15:46:08 -0500, Derek Martin wrote:
> - many, many developers (myself included, but also almost everyone
> I've worked with) find 2 spaces inadequate for indentation, most
> especially (but not exclusively) in longer functions with more
> than 2 or 3 levels of indentation. If you're not one of those,
> bully for you, but don't make the rest of us suffer. Please, use
> a minimum of 4.
Said like that, this does not make much sense, because there are
several ways to indent. For instance:
if (cond)
foo();
if (cond) {
foo();
}
and
if (cond)
foo();
if (cond)
{
foo();
}
and (GNU-style indentation)
if (cond)
foo();
if (cond)
{
foo();
}
I find the latter adequate, even though there are 2 spaces at each
level.
A higher number of spaces would be an issue if there are many nested
loops and if-tests, in particular if the lines are expected to fit in
80 columns (which would be a good idea, but this is not currently the
case in Mutt's code).
For large functions, editors should probably offer visual aids,
e.g. in the space taken by the indentation.
> - In that same vein, more K&R, less GNU. FWIW I think the perfect
> style is W. Richard Stevens, Advanced Programming in the Unix
> Environment. (He uses ts=8 but it only really works if you're
> VERY conscientious about writing small, well-factored functions or
> aren't averse to very long lines.)
But if the functions are small, you do not need that many spaces
to distinguish between indentation levels.
> GNU is an abomination,
I disagree.
> which is why you pretty much never see it outside GNU projects
> or projects of MIT grads... Pretty much never in books.
>
> - sizeof IS NOT A FUNCTION[*]. Do not format it like one, i.e. use:
> ✓ sizeof varname // no, doesn't need parens
> ✓ sizeof (type name) // parens needed, but not a function call!
> ✓ struct foo *x; size_t s = sizeof *x; // doesn't need parens or to be
> initialized/non-null!
But this can be error-prone. For instance,
sizeof i + j
could be misread (specially if the minimum number of spaces are used:
sizeof i+j), and while
sizeof -(int) i
is accepted,
sizeof (int) i
isn't.
--
Vincent Lefèvre <[email protected]> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
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Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)
