Indenting code?

[Jim Gish]

On 09/14/2012 01:36 PM, John Zavgren wrote:
> Good summary, Jim. Thanks.
>
> All I was suggesting is that we should be aware that a few simple 
> command line tools can be configured to automatically format a file 
> before we create a webrev image.
>
I think the tricky thing here, based on what Alan & I said earlier, is 
that the tools can massage the whole file.  I don't know of tools that 
have rules like that.  Anyone else?

Jim
> I use "indent -i4 -bli4 fubar.java". Or if I need to format a section 
> of a non conforming file, I open it in emacs, select the region then 
> hit the tab key. indent is especially useful because it will convert a 
> sows ear into a silk purse.
>
> I didn't intend to start a discussion about various IDEs, although 
> they ought to be configured correctly too.
>
> If I know the rules for massaging code (do they exist?), the I can 
> post the configurations for various tools (vi, emacs, indent, eclipse, 
> netbeans, etc.) on one of our wikis, and no one needs to worry about 
> this anymore. Maybe they're already there?
>
> John
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: jim.gish at oracle.com
> To: chris.hegarty at oracle.com
> Cc: discuss at openjdk.java.net, net-dev at openjdk.java.net
> Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 1:24:06 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: Indenting code?
>
> While it is true that NB and Eclipse and other IDEs offer auto 
> formatting and that will suit some us, I also no that there are some 
> amongst us who still use emacs and vi and possibly other non-IDE 
> editors.  The first thing to agree on is what standard are we coding 
> to.  I had assumed it was the old Sun Java coding standards ( 
> http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/codeconv-138413.html)
>
> Is that the case?
>
> If not, I suggest that we /don't /open this up to a full-fledged 
> discussion of what the standard should be. I've been involved in far 
> too many such religious debates over the years that end up reminding 
> me of the famous Belushi-esque food fight scene from Animal House.  
> Instead, if any question on any one individual point comes up, we look 
> at the predominate approach in the existing code and use that.
>
> As Alan points out, local consistency is important to maintain.  In 
> the unlikely event that an entire piece of code is rewritten, then 
> it's ok to bring it up to the current standard, otherwise don't mess 
> with it.  In other words, there are more important things to consider 
> than whether any one piece of code meets the standard.  Although that 
> would be ideal, we do have to consider the consequences of major 
> formatting changes, since those will impact the ease of interpreting 
> diffs, and far more significant, ability to manage merging.
>
> If we agree that the old Sun Java coding standards are what we /are 
> mostly/ using, then we can identify formatting templates for the major 
> IDEs, and other tools as needed.
>
> ....Jim
>
> Also, this is broader than net-dev, so I'm moving the discussion to 
> discuss at openjdk.java.net. Please respond there.
> On 09/14/2012 12:27 PM, Chris Hegarty wrote:
>
>     On 14/09/12 12:20, Alan Bateman wrote:
>
>         On 14/09/2012 01:21, Brad Wetmore wrote:
>
>             Netbean's automatic formatting does a pretty good job with
>             new code.
>             However, I think the general advice is to not change
>             existing code
>             just because.  When you're dealing with multiple release
>             families, it
>             makes the merges much more difficult.
>
>             Brad
>
>         One think that Paul Sandoz suggested recently is that we
>         should have a
>         NB template that folks can use to avoid some
>         discussions/debates on
>         styles. It would be great for someone to run with that, the
>         hard part is
>         of course that it will be impossible to get agreement.
>         Personally I find
>         NB's defaults okay but there are several cases where its
>         indenting is
>         horrible.
>
>
>     I did play with NB somewhat trying to get it follow, exactly, the
>     preferred style in some areas of the JDK code. I was able to get
>     it close, or at least better than the default, but I don't believe
>     it is possible to get it to do exactly what we want.
>
>     -Chris.
>
>         Anyway, the main advice I think is to keep things locally
>         consistent
>         where possible. Also major refactoring or formatting in a bug
>         fix is a
>         royal pain for reviewers.
>
>         -Alan
>
>
> -- 
> Jim Gish | Consulting Member of Technical Staff | +1.781.442.0304
> Oracle Java Platform Group | Core Libraries Team
> 35 Network Drive
> Burlington, MA 01803
> jim.gish at oracle.com

-- 
Jim Gish | Consulting Member of Technical Staff | +1.781.442.0304
Oracle Java Platform Group | Core Libraries Team
35 Network Drive
Burlington, MA 01803
jim.gish at oracle.com