On Wed, 10 Mar 2010, Bert Freudenberg wrote:

> On 10.03.2010, at 02:53, commits at source.squeak.org wrote:
>>
>> + 	^packageList ifNil:[packageList := (PackageInfo allPackages collect: [ :each | each packageName]) sort]!
>> - 	^packageList ifNil:[packageList := (MCWorkingCopy allManagers collect:[:each| each packageName]) sort]!
>
>
> This to me replaces one style of too few spaces with another of too many ;)
>
> I'd have written
>
> 	collect: [:each | each packageName]
>
> but I just looked at the Blue Book and there indeed is a space before and after a block argument. OTOH it does conform to Kent's examples:
>
> 	http://c2.com/ppr/formatting.html
>

I try not to change the formatting of methods written by others to my 
taste, but there are times when I just can't stop myself. This one liner 
is half baked though...
If this was written by me entirely it would look like something like this:

 	^packageList ifNil: [
 		packageList := (PackageInfo allPackages collect: [ :each |
 			each packageName ]) sort ]

I used to add a space before and after all [ and ].

> Generally I feel this is not much of a problem. But I have occasionally seen rather strange formatting, So for the benefit of better readability, do we want to have general rules for formatting code?
>
> Many projects have such rules. One good example IMHO is PEP-8 in the Python community.
>
> For Smalltalk I only know Kent Beck's rules from "Best Practice Patterns" which seem like a good set. And IMHO any rules are better than none, so maybe we want to just agree that if in doubt, follow that suggested practice?
>

If someone has his/her own code formatting rules, he/she will hardly 
change to another. I find my rules (which are mostly based on this book: 
http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks/WithStyle/SmalltalkWithStyle.pdf 
) very readable, especially with shout which colorizes the brackets too.

Therefore I'm against of forcing a single code formatting. I personally 
dislike Kent's "rectangular block" idea.
For example:
I found this more readable

aCollection
 	do: [ :each |
 		stream
 			nextPut: $(;
 			print: each;
 			nextPut: $) ]
 	separatedBy: [
 		stream
 			nextPut: $,;
 			space ]

than this

aCollection
 	do:
 		[:each |
 		stream
 			nextPut: $(;
 			print: each;
 			nextPut: $)]
 	separatedBy:
 		[stream
 			nextPut: $,;
 			space]

You can notice the rectangular shape in both examples.

I think the best would be a highly customizable pretty printer which would 
allow anyone to read all methods formatted in the way he/she prefers.


Levente

> - Bert - (hoping this does not open a can of worms ...)

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>
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