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From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Message-Id: <199512032032.NAA08994@phaeton.artisoft.com>
Subject: Re: xemacs
To: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 1995 13:32:31 -0700 (MST)
Cc: chuckr@glue.umd.edu, FreeBSD-Questions@FreeBSD.ORG
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.951202165007.306A-100000@riley-net170-164.uoregon.edu> from "Doug White" at Dec 2, 95 04:52:24 pm
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> I personally like your way, and do so, because I can't figure out how to 
> make the syntax highlighting stick.  It does in html mode, but not in cpp 
> mode.

[ ... Coding style ... ]

I've found that coding style is generally a function of the tools you
use to manipulate the code.

For most UNIX-oids, it's 'vi', 'find', and 'grep', etc.

Use of tag-files reduces the utility of some of these tools, making
then redundant.  Use of things like "cvi" results in some "unnatural"
standards that become much easier to use with macro-editing.

You can almost pick out which system and what tools a programmer
uses by the coding style, unless they are real green and haven't
established a style or adopted a standard style for a platform,
with minor variations.

For instance, you typically see

<return type>
<funcname>

instead of

<return type> <funcname>

when a programmer uses the ^<funcname> regular expression to find a
function declaration, either in vi in a single file or using grep
over a large number of files.


You see

<function declaration>
{

Instead of

<function declaration>
  {

or

<function declaration> {

when a programmer uses the vi "[[" and "]]" commands (without using
a "set paragraphs=" command in their .exrc) to find function starts.


You see

<statement expression> {

instead of

<statement expression>
{

When the programmer uses the vi "$%" to match statement scope, since
it is less finger motion than "j%", etc., etc..

Not much relevance, I know, but it's an interesting aside.


					Terry Lambert
					terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.