At 06:05 PM 6/26/01 -0400, Gross, Stephan wrote:
>Why is this style
>
>if ($x) {
> do this;
> do that;
>}
>
>typically preferred over
>
>if ($x)
>{
> do this;
> do that;
>}
>
This tends to be a hotly debated religious issue. There are people who use
that later abomination. ;-) The closest I can come to a rationalization
for my preference is that the former is easier to visually scan. You see
the if token and then it is indented to a close-squiggly that appears by
itself. For me at least, the
{
...
}
scans as a completely separate entity and sets me looking for funny tricks
with scopes or closures or something.
Of course, the reason that it scans that way for me is that I never write
that way, nor have I ever worked with anyone who made it their habit. I
think my reason for preferring it boils down to the fact that it is the way
I've always done it.
>I like the latter example because it's easier to cut and paste the braces
>and everything in between.
Mmmm... Same for me either way:
y%
does it in vim in either case. If you use the former technique, you'll type:
$y%
a lot and if the latter:
jy%
often. I imagine the same is true in emacs, though it'll be a little
harder on your pinky. ;-)
If you are using something that makes you highlight a section with a mouse
in order to copy it, you're already slowing yourself down
needlessly. Switch to something key-based and you'll find that you speed
up to the point where placement of braces won't be so important to speed.
Actually, I have encountered one custom that slowed me down
considerably. It was a variation on the first of your above techniques,
but the miserable sod put a space after the opening brace in if and loop
statements.
That breaks $y% or just $%. They still haven't found his body and all of
his code has been repaired.
Cheers,
Jeff
