Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 30 Nov 2001 12:54:01 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 30 Nov 2001 12:53:52 -0500 Received: from babsi.intermeta.de ([212.34.181.3]:20230 "EHLO mail.intermeta.de") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Fri, 30 Nov 2001 12:53:10 -0500 Subject: Re: Coding style - a non-issue From: Henning Schmiedehausen To: Larry McVoy Cc: Jeff Garzik , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <20011130092730.Q14710@work.bitmover.com> In-Reply-To:

<20011128162317.B23210@work.bitmover.com> <9u7lb0$8t9$1@forge.intermeta.de> <20011130072634.E14710@work.bitmover.com> <1007138360.6656.27.camel@forge> <3C07B820.4108246F@mandrakesoft.com> <1007140529.6655.37.camel@forge> <20011130092730.Q14710@work.bitmover.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Evolution/0.99.2 (Preview Release) Date: 30 Nov 2001 18:53:05 +0100 Message-Id: <1007142785.6655.39.camel@forge> Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Fri, 2001-11-30 at 18:27, Larry McVoy wrote: Larry > I think that if you ask around, you'll find that the pros use a coding > style that isn't theirs, even when writing new code. They have evolved > to use the prevailing style in their environment. I know that's true for > me, my original style was 4 space tabs, curly braces on their own line, > etc. I now code the way Bill Joy codes, fondly known as Bill Joy normal > form. I don't have to ask around. You may want to know that I work in this industry for about 15 years and write commercial code (that is "code that ships") since about that time (and I don't run around telling everybody each and every time about it and what I've already done). I've written code in a good two dozen languages (including things that really deserve to die like Comal) and I've worked in projects from "one man show" to "lots of people in Elbonia also work on this". So, please, please, Larry, _STOP THE FUCK PATRONIZING OTHERS_. Actually, I try to consider myself a "pro" in some languages and a bloody amateur in others (like Lisp or Python). That is "pro" as in "pays his bills with writing software". > > Anyway, if you think any coding style is better than another, you completely > miss the point. The existing style, whatever it is, is the style you use. > I personally despise the GNU coding style but when I make changes there, > that's what I use because it is their source base, not mine. We're in violent agreement here. Unfortunatly we do not agree whether it is good to force a driver writer (which is, IMHO, most of the time a well defined entity of one, maybe two or three source code files that uses a well established (though sometimes changing) API to talk to the kernel) to convert his style to the linux kernel ("our style is better than yours, you must convert") or allow him to continue working (and maintaining) his driver in the kernel tree in his own style. Even if his variable names contain Uppercase letters. The question now is, what is "amateur behaviour": Forcing this driver writer to change or to tolerate his style in his driver? We're still talking about a driver, not about the VM subsystem or the networking core. And will "putting up a list of the ten most ugly drivers with author names" really persuade this author to change? Or simply to drop out and write a driver for an OS that may be more tolerant? That the core components of a large software project must adhere to a style guide (and the Linux style guide is pretty good, because it is _SHORT_), there is no disagreement between you and me. Regards Henning -- Dipl.-Inf. (Univ.) Henning P. Schmiedehausen -- Geschaeftsfuehrer INTERMETA - Gesellschaft fuer Mehrwertdienste mbH hps@intermeta.de Am Schwabachgrund 22 Fon.: 09131 / 50654-0 info@intermeta.de D-91054 Buckenhof Fax.: 09131 / 50654-20 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/