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Actually apart from the lack of indentation it was correct. The Visual Studio default and the Microsoft Recommended Coding conventions all use that style.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brada/archive/2005/01/26/361363.aspx
Yeah I'm aware of that and I don't agree with it. I think it's less readable and the opposite of what developers in most other C-derived languages prefer.
Plus I object to Microsoft dictating how I -or any other 3rd party developer- chooses to format the braces in our own source code. That's my prerogative, not theirs.
Edited 2013-01-16 14:21 UTC
I usually put braces on a new line unless the block is one line long.
if (someArg == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("someArg");
The only exception I usually have to this is if its part of a larger if-the-else statement and the other blocks are multiline and have curly braces. Then I think:
if (this == that)
doX();
else if (x == y)
{
// ..
}
else
{
// ..
}
I think the obsession with vertical space is kind of silly in this day and age. I am much more sensitive to code that sprawls horizontally forever.
Besides, I often find new line braces more readable while less compact, whereas the opposite is true for a lack of braces, same line braces, or first brace same line.
At the end of the day though, it is extremely annoying when some full-of-himself programmer ignores the established project coding guidelines. I don't care if a monkey wrote it, if I'm going to be a part of a team, I'm going to follow their rules.
Compare that to the C#...
That's badly formatted C# "
Your opinion, and bear in mind, OSNews lost my indentation. To me, your code looks suboptimal for readability. I work in a large team, other people picking up classes and libraries I've written is essential. Standard style guides and conformity saves a lot of time and prevents prima donnas. Plus, having come from Pascal, those arguments just waste too much time. Suffice to say:
Lazy programmeritis:
if (x = y) then begin
.....
end else begin
....
end;
I once had a co worker that used this one:
if (x = y) then
begin
...
end
else
begin
end;
And this one:
if (x = y) then
begin
.....
end
else
begin
......
end;
Borland style:
if (x=y) then
begin
...
end;
And that is just scratching the surface and not even dealing with tabs, etc. It's a holy war, not worth winging about.
For C#, the basic layout I use (and enforce here) is based on the standard Microsoft use in all of their sample code. Sorry if you don't like that, complain to someone who has write access to Microsoft's source repository ;-) Visual Studio also usefully formats this way - why fight the IDE?
if ( X == Null )
{
Something();
Somethingelse();
}
else if ( Blah == "Give up" )
{
Somemore();
}
else
{
ShootYourself( DateTime.Now );
}
I never use tabs, they are evil. I use 2 spaces for "Tabstop" because otherwise your code shoots off to the right at great speed. I would go for simple over terse single line every time. I tend to (recently) add in extra space in if/else if/method params. This is just a concession to a speed reading on a high res monitor. Text scans better.
Not exactly the same thing. In Pascal this is one statement:
if (x = y) then dosomthing else dosomthingelse(y);
and so is this:
if (x = y) then begin dosomthing; end else dosomthingelse(y);
and so is this:
if (x = y) then begin dosomthing; doanotherthing(x); end else begin dosomthingelse(y); end;
dosomething and dosomethingelse(..) are compound, as are the other examples. Like I said, the C syntax is sort of similar, but not exactly. Pascal thinks of the compounds as being part of a single statement, with compound elements. Where as C doesn't (IIRC.) The braces in C are just a way to create a block and the if/else links those blocks together. Semantics, I know. But look again at the basic Pascal version:
if (x = y) then dosomthing else dosomthingelse(y);
That is a pure statement, with no semicolon after the first clause. Geddit? :-) C would require 2 statements linking the blocks:
if (x==y) dosomething(); else dosomthingelse(y);
if (x = y) then dosomthing else dosomthingelse(y);
That is a pure statement, with no semicolon after the first clause. Geddit?
I don't. How is that any different from
(x == y) ? dosomething() : dosomethingelse(y);
?
Maybe it looks a bit more cryptic than its begin/end counterpart if you embed these kind of statements into each other, but not by much. Stacking ternary statements is always ugly and unreadable, regardless of the language used.





Member since:
2007-03-26
Compare that to the C#...
That's badly formatted C#
I prefer the following:
if (X == Null) {
Something();
Somethingelse();
} else if (Blah == "Give up") {
Somemore();
} else {
ShootYourself(DateTime.Now);
}
In my opinion that is significantly more readable than any of the other examples you've listed.
Sometimes I concatenate the lines further:
if (X == Null) {
Something();
Somethingelse();
}
else if (Blah == "Give up") { Somemore(); }
else { ShootYourself(DateTime.Now); }
(this isn't the best of examples (and not helped by the formatting on OSNews), even I wouldn't concatenate specifically here, but sometimes it does aid readability.
edit:
You can use blocks in C-derived languages as well:
{
if (X == Null) {
Something();
Somethingelse();
} else if (Blah == "Give up") {
Somemore();
} else {
ShootYourself(DateTime .Now);
}
}
Edited 2013-01-16 14:10 UTC