Re: A small rant about coding style for backend functions

Tom Lane wrote:
> "Brendan Jurd" <direvus@gmail.com> writes:
> > If Postgres did have something akin to the Python C style guide, that
> > would be excellent.  But all we've got is a standard tabstop of four
> > spaces and the five words "Our standard format BSD style".  Don't you
> > think that comes across as pretty weak for a project of this size and
> > significance?
> 
> The reason it's not necessary to be very explicit about that is simple:
> pg_indent.  Your code *will* conform to the layout standards by the
> time it's released ;-).  Now it's still a good idea to make new code
> look roughly like what you see there already, because if you go too
> far overboard in ignoring line-length or comment layout conventions,
> the code may look a bit awful when pg_indent gets done with it.
> But I see no need to burden authors with any advice more detailed
> than "make it look like what you see".
> 
> Having said that, there are two or three tips worth knowing about
> pg_indent's behavior, like when and how to use dashes to prevent
> comment blocks from being re-flowed.  But it's a short list.

Agreed, and the developer's FAQ already has this:
   <P><I>pgindent</I> will the format code by specifying flags to your   operating system's utility <I>indent.</I> This
<Ahref=   "http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200112/single_coding_style.html">article</A>   describes the value of a
consistentcoding style.</P>
 
   <P><I>pgindent</I> is run on all source files just before each beta   test period. It auto-formats all source files
tomake them   consistent. Comment blocks that need specific line breaks should be   formatted as <I>block comments,</I>
wherethe comment starts as   <CODE>/*------</CODE>. These comments will not be reformatted in   any way.</P>
 

--  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us EnterpriseDB
http://postgres.enterprisedb.com
 + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +