defluffing Portfiles (port lint)

[Chris Pickel]

On 10 Jul, 2007, at 18:15, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
> This is also a reason why using spaces everywhere, even for line  
> indentation, is bad IMHO: it forces your personal line indentation  
> preference on everyone else.

Or forces everyone else's on you. For example, I like 2-wide soft  
tabs. But since many others seem not to, I have put my personal  
preferences aside and write with 4-wide for MacPorts. That's a good  
thing; there's more value in consistency than in getting my way.

>> Or use spaces everywhere. Just as long as it is consistent ?
>
> I'd prefer not to use spaces everywhere, because I like using the  
> tab key and other indentation functions of my editor, which uses  
> the tab character. I do not wish to reconfigure my editor to use  
> space characters because I use tab characters in all the other non- 
> MacPorts text files that I edit with my editor.

That can still be problematic. I write code with the assumption that  
it will be edited and viewed on a 80-char-wide terminal. That means  
that, if I were to use 2-wide hard tabs, lots of lines could start  
wrapping in places they shouldn't for others' settings.

Aside from that, the argument "we should use hard tabs to avoid  
enforcing personal indentation preferences on others" is fallacious,  
because many people (such as me) prefer soft tabs :)

Basically, I would rather a standard width were dictated from "on  
high" than it be left to users. I don't care what it is (and it  
probably won't be what I'd like) so long as the Portfile looks the  
same to me as to everyone else.


Chris
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: PGP.sig
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 186 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://lists.macosforge.org/pipermail/macports-dev/attachments/20070710/6cc099b7/PGP.bin