Re: Which code style do you prefer the most?

On 12/03/2025 09:12, Michael S wrote:

On Wed, 12 Mar 2025 06:52:33 +0000
Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> wrote:
 

On 12/03/2025 05:11, Tim Rentsch wrote:

Are any of these cases ones that you find objectionable

>
In my capacity as grumpy old git? All of them, of course.
>

 Even in your capacity as grumpy old git you can be more concrete.
 

For sound practical reasons? No, of course not.
>
But the importance of grump should not be under-estimated.
>

or would
cause difficulty for code that you work on?  If so which ones?
My question here is meant to ask about specifics, not just
general categories.  And to be clear, I don't mean to limit the
set of potential problems being considered to just the examples
given above.

>
I suppose what I'm trying to get at is that there is merit in
having a small, well-defined, well-known language that doesn't
keep buzzing around. People who want bells and whistles can
undoubtedly find them in other languages, so why insist on
dragging them into C as well when they're so rarely a good fit,
like trying to split an infinitive... in Latin?
>
So no, Tim; it's not for specific technical reasons, but more for
the sake of having one widely-known language that really is a
lingua franca and valuable for that very reason.
>

 So far it looks like hand waving.

Of course. And so do the (to me, spurious) reasons offered for changing the language in the first place. If those reasons have convinced you, you're not going to be convinced back by a rigorous analysis, so why bother? Besides, the ship has obviously sailed, and all that remains to me is my opinion... oh, and my -ansi -pedantic flags.
I'll bet that even to this day there are some grumpy old gits out there decrying Fortran 90 and insisting that FORTRAN 77 is far superior...
--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within