defluffing Portfiles (port lint)

[Weissmann Markus]

On 11 Jul 2007, at 07:08, Jyrki Wahlstedt wrote:

> On 11.7.2007, at 2.06, Anders F Björklund wrote:
>
>> Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>>
>>>> The simple solution being defining tabs to something like 8.
>>>
>>> To bring back some of the arguments from earlier threads: I do  
>>> not wish to configure my editor to use 8-space tabs. I prefer 4- 
>>> space tabs. This is why editors let you change the tab width:  
>>> because it's a personal preference. Do not force your personal  
>>> preferences on me. Different people prefer 4- or 8- or 2- or 3- 
>>> space tab settings in their editors, and that's just fine. They  
>>> should be allowed to do that.
>>
>> It's of course possible to keep indentation in Portfiles
>> up to the port maintainer. Maybe I should have mention that
>> suggested "port lint" didn't actually check any indentation,
>> just the use of newlines between certain port constructs...
>>
>> BTW; 8 is the default Unix hard tab size, not anything personal
>> (it will show up when using for instance a browser or terminal)
>
> To say my word, too, here:
> I have tried to follow the traditional model quite long, using lots  
> of tabs actually. That of course works quite well, as whitespace in  
> proper places makes the file readable. Lately I have changed my own  
> writing somewhat, due to my use of emacs, because then I don't have  
> to take care of the indentation myself. Emacs has its own mode for  
> tcl, that works quite well. It can be adjusted, so if in the future  
> a common coding style is agreed upon, perhaps a document page is  
> written to define the correct values for all the variables concerned.
>

As everyone likes to have its tabs in a different size, use her/his  
editor of choice, etc., etc. I say: Lets go for spaces only. Once  
everyone has accommodated to it, we'll all be happy.


>>
>>> But this is the reason why using tabs to keep columns aligned is  
>>> a bad idea and should not be done -- columns become unaligned for  
>>> all tab-width settings other than the one the author used. 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.
>>
>> Unless there is a common project line indentation standard,
>> it's no useful idea of trying to force anything upon anyone.
>>
> I agree. However, I'd say, it's perhaps more important to have some  
> indentation (I think this is the case) than to try very hard to  
> define, what it's like.
>
>>> Other users will of course argue that their editors are  
>>> configured to use spaces, and they do not wish to reconfigure  
>>> their editors to use tabs... I think this is where we stalemated  
>>> last time.
>>
>> Maybe just keep it flexible then ? Or leave it to the Portfile
>> prettyprinter, to show the Portfiles in some readable manner...
>> (and adding some syntax coloring wouldn't hurt either, probably
>> can use Tcl with some extra keywords for the common variables?)
>>
>> Standardizing the variable order might not be a bad thing though,
>> nor providing a Portfile template (whether blank or interactive).
>>
>> --anders
>
> I'll second that. Some of the portfiles are large, and to read them  
> is a lot easier, if variables, phases, and variants are always in  
> some definite order. I don't myself see very much significance  
> between different indentation styles. I'd guess most of files can  
> read files with some (intelligible) indentation. Flexibility on the  
> other hand makes it easier to write them, as each one of us likes  
> to do things in a personal way (that said, it doesn't matter to me,  
> if I can adjust my tcl-mode to indent the lines in the generally  
> accepted and recommended manner).
>

Having a sane stringent order is a good idea.


-Markus

---
Markus W. Weissmann
http://www.mweissmann.de/


---
Markus W. Weissmann
http://www.mweissmann.de/