Path: csiph.com!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed9.news.xs4all.nl!3.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!news.in-chemnitz.de!news2.arglkargh.de!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: How to disambiguate macro?
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2021 23:17:32 -0700
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 35
Message-ID: <86wnonw7sz.fsf@linuxsc.com>
References: <sd6b8j$498$1@reader1.panix.com> <sd6gqq$sjl$1@dont-email.me> <sd6igi$jos$1@reader1.panix.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Injection-Info: reader02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="4dd8ce6a7e240a14eec73d2f816adcd2"; logging-data="30568"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+dg7MzTXQK9ewvEKBgZ2HzkPNPPJkRYf8="
User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.4 (gnu/linux)
Cancel-Lock: sha1:bSorVGIJiyn3hzfBc39LbU2XFBs= sha1:5bXFZLogj6Sq/Bc9u/2Lt+oIGfU=
Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.c:162379

John Forkosh <forkosh@panix.com> writes:

> David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> wrote:

[...]

>> And I recommend you get in the habit of writing :
>>         if (xxx) {
>>                 setlink(a, b, c);
>>         } else {
>>                 yyy;
>>         }
>> People vary in their opinions and styles, of course, ...
>
> Yuk!  My, but that's ugly. :)  For just one statement in the
> if-clause and/or else-clause, I typically wouldn't use {}'s at
> all.  And for just a few statements, I typically write it like
>           if (xxx) {
>             setlink(a, b, c);
>             getlink(d, e, f); }
>           else {
>             yyy;
>             zzz; }

Despite your visceral reaction, the layout you suggest here is
objectively inferior along at least one important axis.  Studies
of various rules for bracketing layout have found that lining up
closing brackets (which are braces in this case) with the start
of their corresponding opening lines (ie, like the quoted example
recommendation) gives the lowest error rates of all the layout
styles looked at (including the "lisp style" layout you suggest).
The layout you prefer has higher error rates than the "ugly"
layout you dislike.  I think any developer who is serious about
writing good code would want to follow a layout style that has
lower error rates, whatever their personal reactions might be.