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Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 23:28:20 -0800 (PST)
From: Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com>
Message-Id: <199901280728.XAA98161@apollo.backplane.com>
To: Julian Elischer <julian@whistle.com>
Cc: John Birrell <jb@cimlogic.com.au>, John Polstra <jdp@polstra.com>,
        bde@zeta.org.au, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: btokup().. STYLE(9)
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:I think that style(9) should be modified to include
:"Parenthesis may be used to improve the readbility of complex
:expressions even if not strictly required."
:instead of the stupid phrase presently there.
:also:
:"Braces around code blocks should be allowable even when not strictly
:needed, for the purpose of readbility."
:
:The aim is to produce readble maintainable code, not to save bytes in
:sourcecode!
:
:julian
 
     I agree completely.  I've already gotten into the habit of added
     braces when conditonal expressions exceed one line, even though there 
     may be only one statement.  Otherwise the code is just too unreadable.

    if (expression)
	    single_line_stmt;
    else
	    single_line_stmt;

    if (some really
	complex expression) {
	    single_line_stmt;
    } else {
	    single_line_stmt;
    }

    if (expression) {
	    single_line_stmt;
    } else {
	    multi_line_stmt;
	    multi_line_stmt;
    }

    if (expression) {
	    multi_line_stmt;
	    multi_line_stmt;
    } else {
	    single_line_stmt;
    }


    All too often I see this:

    if (expression) {
	    multi_line_stmt;
	    multi_line_stmt;
	    multi_line_stmt;
	    multi_line_stmt;
	    multi_line_stmt;
	    multi_line_stmt;
	    multi_line_stmt;
	    multi_line_stmt;
	    multi_line_stmt;
	    multi_line_stmt;
    } else
	    single_line_stmt;

	    some other code here
    Or here.

    while (some really
	complex expression
	that takes a bunch of room) {
	    single_line_stmt;
    }

	or

    while (some really
	complex expression
	that takes a bunch of room
    ) {
	    single_line_stmt;
    }


    And I'll tell you, it just isn't readable, especially when you get into
    while()'s and do's and such with HUGE expressions and single-line
    bodies.  

    If any part of the if () needs braces, I put the other part in braces 
    as well.  It would be nice if that were formalized.  The issue with
    where to put the ') {' is a harder one to formalize... Probably half
    the people like it one way and half the people like it the other.

    IMHO.

					-Matt
					Matthew Dillon 
					<dillon@backplane.com>


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