On Thu, 27 Sep 2007, Sergei Steshenko wrote:
- if no formatting is enforced on a project, nobody is repelled, since
everybody has the possibility/freedom to write code the way he/she likes;
No, they can be repelled by the formatting that is already used in the project, and they have at least to keep existing code formatted the same way, because reformatting will be frowned upon at least to the extent that you do it as part of a cvs commit that is about something else than reformatting. I mean, if you use your own reformatter on whole files, you will have to undo its effect on the already existing code after you modify the code and before you submit, yes?
- if formatting is considered necessary, it'd better be done automatically
in order not to repell contributors who prefer a different formatting style.
I consider formatting to be rather close to necessary and yet I employ a style of formatting that isn't close to being supported by any automatic formatting tool. I'm not sure when I will ever try to make a tool for it, but it isn't that likely that I'll ever try. That said, if someone sent me a diff that uses a different formatting, I wouldn't reject it (at least not for that reason!).
And, by the way, I have nothing against macros.
Excellent.
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