
"I was really excited to write this article, because it gave me an excuse to really think about what beautiful code is. I still don't think I know, and maybe it's entirely subjective. I do think the two biggest things, for me at least, are stylistic indenting and maximum const-ness. A lot of the stylistic choices are definitely my personal preferences, and I'm sure other programmers will have different opinions. I think the choice of what style to use is up to whoever has to read and write the code, but I certainly think it's something worth thinking about. I would suggest everyone look at the Doom 3 source code
because I think it exemplifies beautiful code, as a complete package: from system design down to how to tab space the characters." John Carmack himself
replies in the comments.
Member since:
2009-08-18
I also think it depends on the language you are writing in where you should put it.
e.g.
If it is JavaScript Douglas Crockford recommends the opening brace should be on the first line, because of JavaScript semi-colon insertion mechanism.
Java is the same due to convention. Microsoft recommend you use opening brace on the following line as you do when writing C# and is the visual studio intellisense default.
Personally I somewhat agree with the OP and I have had a gutful of C style syntax.