Re: Throw some low-level C scutwork at me

Andy Lester wrote:
>
> On May 1, 2009, at 2:37 PM, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
>
>> Regardless, I
>> agree with Tom that the idea of having decorators of any kind in source
>> or docs is a bad idea.
>
> Why is it a bad idea?  I don't understand the downside of a line or 
> two at the bottom of a source file.

Because it becomes one more maintenance task we don't need.

>
>
>> That being said, there is no reason why we can have a section of the
>> wiki that has .rc files for respective editors and environments that
>> conform to .Org coding conventions.
>
>
> I've always found it preferable to have the editors enforce the coding 
> standards for us, without relying on the coder do anything on his 
> end.  I'd rather that volunteers, especially new volunteers, spend 
> their time and brain cycles thinking about code, not messing with 
> config files.
>
>

FWIW I had a quick look at two other OS projects: the linux kernel and 
the apache httpd server. Apache is simple - there's one vim line and no 
vi lines in the whole source. The linux kernel is a mess. There are a 
couple of hundred files with inconssistent mode lines. Most have none 
(and there are thousands).

So we're hardly alone in not doing it the way you're suggesting.

cheers

andrew