 <p>I look at vertical space in code the way I look at paragraphs in written prose. Just as a paragraph is meant to group sentences together that have a common point or idea, lines that are related should be grouped together.</p> <p>The overall objective is to improve the readability of the code. Just as an article without any paragraphs would be difficult to read, so to is code without any vertical space. And just as with prose, there is a balance between composing paragraphs that are too short or too long. But in the end, it mostly comes down to personal style and preference.</p>