Subject: Re: Time to update KNF?
To: Allen Briggs <>
From: Todd Whitesel <>
List: tech-kern
Date: 01/20/2000 01:50:24
> Conventional wisdom says that code formatting is a personal preference
> thing and that different people can read and understand code better in

My take on this from working at a few different shops is that most people
get "set in their ways" after working with one style for too long, but if
you force yourself to deal with a couple different coding styles regularly,
you start to just adapt to whatever the prevailing style is whereever you
happen to be working. And for some reason, the most successful coding styles
are the ones where _everyone_ finds at least one thing about it to hate.

I am definitely in the camp that says: coding styles are largely arbitrary,
consistency is more important than perfection; don't fix what's broke.

> Again, the best solution is probably to have an editor that formats to
> your preference upon loading and reformats to KNF on output.  If that's
> possible to do properly.

If we are going to make ANY changes to our coding style, it should be only
what is needed to support automatic reformatting by personalized editors.
Then the problem is solved and we can move on to something less religious.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @