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[Nic Gibson]

On 10/26/07, Aaron Crane <perl at aaroncrane.co.uk> wrote:
> Nic Gibson writes:
> > On 10/26/07, Dirk Koopman <djk at tobit.co.uk> wrote:
> > > K&R formatting good, anything else bad (and literally a waste of
> > > space).
> >
> > But then I waste space because space is cheap.
>
> I'm not so sure it is, in this context.  It seems pretty clear to me
> that the more code you can see on screen at once, the easier it is to
> understand.  With that in mind, note that (unlike, say, CPU transistor
> counts) screen lines are a non-renewable resource.

I was being a bit facetious.
Actually I find

sub mysub {

}

hard to read so I tend to write

sub mysub
{

}

and then perltidy it (or appropriate other language tool) for other
people. I just find lined up braces easier to read. I realise that I'm
in a minority and just reformat for the rest of the world.

>
> The limiting factor in how many lines can be displayed simultaneously
> is actually the way human vision works.  Increasing pixel counts
> doesn't help beyond a certain point: if the screen gets bigger, you
> have to put it further away to ensure you can see all of it, and if
> the pixels get smaller, you have to use more of them for each line of
> text you want to be legible.  (Subpixel text decimation counts as a
> cunning variant of "smaller pixels" for these purposes.)

I've found 2x20" display at 1600x1200 perfect.
Sadly, I now only have one of them.
>
> K&R differs from other brace styles in not spending precious screen
> lines on opening curlies whose presence a human can infer from the
> shape of the code.  That's a strong argument to make when choosing an
> indentation style for a fresh project.

Given what I just said, I actually agree with you. My brain just
doesn't work that way :)
I *do* write what was once describe as 'neurotically tidy code' tho
(only thing in my life that is tidy).

nic
-- 
Nic Gibson
Director, Corbas Consulting
Editorial and Technical Consultancy
http://www.corbas.co.uk/