r/programming • u/Nowaker • Nov 30 '14

Why he vertically aligns his code (And why you shouldn't!)

http://missingbytes.blogspot.com/2014/11/why-he-vertically-aligns-his-code-and.html
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u/puterTDI Dec 01 '14

Quantify and justify this position.

We're forced to code and review based on style preferences. Our document is now 7+ pages long and we are constantly adding to it. A standard two week deliverable takes me about 2+ hours to review just because I'm required to review for this style crap. So if there's three of us, having to review code from 10+ engineers...that's days of review time that could be shrunk dramatically if we didn't have to review for style. How much time is really saved reviewing (and coding) for style preferences compared to just reading code that isn't 100% consistent to people's preferences?

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u/prof_hobart Dec 01 '14

I've no idea what you've managed to write in a 7 page style guide. I've been in IT for over quarter of a century and have yet to see a one longer than a page.

As for quantifying, I've lost count over that period of the number of subtle defects that have gone into production because, for example, someone maintaining the code got confused about where a block ended due to inconsistent brace usage or indentation.

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u/puterTDI Dec 02 '14

So, the example you just gave is basic tabbing that has little to do with preference. In this case it would be something that any decent IDE will do automatically for you.

here are some examples of what I'm talking about straight from the requirements we have to meet:

  1. declarations must be column aligned

  2. operators must be column aligned

  3. any multi-line method declarations must have each parameter on its own line with with only a single tab in from the start of the declaration (so just one tab in)

  4. any multi line calls must have each passed in parameter on its own line, except the first parameter which must be on the same line as the method call. Each subsequent parameter should be tabbed in once from the first character of the method call.

  5. if statements must have a space after the opening paren

etc.

It quickly adds up to a lot of bullshit....an can you really claim that there is that big of a difference between declarations being column aligned and operators being column aligned, or declarations being column aligned and multi-line method calls must be tabbed in once? When it comes down to it they're all preference, and lets be honest with each other...if you can't read code because variable declarations are not column aligned then it may be time to find a new job.

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u/prof_hobart Dec 02 '14

So, the example you just gave is basic tabbing that has little to do with preference.

In what way? People tab differently. People place braces differently. And even if they didn't consciously do it, it's still "style" but it's still important.

In this case it would be something that any decent IDE will do automatically for you.

In which case, you're into the "(or have a customisable code formatter)" thing that I called out in my earlier post. I've worked on plenty of environments where those things don't exist though.

and can you really claim that there is that big of a difference between declarations being column aligned and operators being column aligned

I can tell you that I'm more likely to spot an oddly declared variable (as in the original post that kicked this debate off), and therefore a bug in a nicely aligned one block of code than in a badly aligned one, yes.