The exceptional beauty of Doom 3’s source code
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 15th Jan 2013 21:24 UTC
General Development "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.
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RE[6]: Good article
by Nelson on Wed 16th Jan 2013 16:01 UTC in reply to "RE[5]: Good article"
Nelson
Member since:
2005-11-29

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.

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[7]: Good article
by Laurence on Wed 16th Jan 2013 16:13 in reply to "RE[6]: Good article"
Laurence Member since:
2007-03-26

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.


I hear you on that.

In the past I've written code that I've personally hated but it was correct in the context of the wider project.

That said, I have been known to completely rewrite smaller projects before, but those have been extreme circumstances (and there's usually been more wrong than just the use of blocks and braces hehe)

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[7]: Good article
by lucas_maximus on Wed 16th Jan 2013 19:44 in reply to "RE[6]: Good article"
lucas_maximus Member since:
2009-08-18

I usually put braces on a new line unless the block is one line long.

if (someArg == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("someArg");


I usually like putting the braces.

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.


Here here, we are having a meeting about coding standards just because there isn't any in our team.

I would like to make sure we use the Microsoft ones for C#, just because they are easily referenced and are well known. Also because we have a lot of juniors, when they look at code samples they are normally using the Microsoft syntax for the most part.

Reply Parent Score: 2