Emacs auto-modes and tabs

[David Roberts]

On Tue, 22 Apr 2003, Jason Stephenson stated in their Email:

[... hack-N-whack ...]

jason> > 
jason> > Nope, but even vi knows about spaces, now if we want to 
jason> > have a realy holy war - how about the proper placement of 
jason> > the curly braces within the, in this case 'C' code 
jason> > (same/separate line as the statement, indented with code 
jason> > or not, etc.)  There, I should have opened up at least two 
jason> > points of "discussion" with that one...   >;)
jason> 
jason> I pointed out to Derek in private mail last night that the
jason> question was specifically about Emacs. It's in the subject
jason> line. What vi does and that other editors even exist are
jason> irrelevant to the conversation. If you want to talk about 
jason> that, then branch off a new subject.

Nope - don't want to.  I was merely making a point we all do 
things for some reason, be it forced on us by our employer or 
by the teacher from CS101, or merely personal preference where 
allowed.  I use emacs and I use spaces as that is what my 
previous employers (and CSxxx teachers) required *and* IMNSHO 
it is still better suited for use in multiple (hardcopy, 
windowing, etc.) environments.

On a related note, look at our pet peeve about formatting email 
for the old 80-column mail tools a lot of us still use.  One can 
actually use any editor one chooses (ascii, html, or worse), but 
it all comes down to a matter of what the target community will 
request/tolerate first and your personal preference second.

jason> 
jason> Curly brace placement is another hot topic among programmers
jason> and my answer is the same as for spaces vs. tabs. Do what the
jason> programmer before you did. If you're doing your own thing, then
jason> do what you want. This is another point where Emacs can be
jason> configured to do the right thing, or anything that you want.

OK, define "right thing".  The point you missed is the fact 
your definition of the "right thing" doesn't always matter.  It 
can be defined by your employer (or teacher) in their coding 
guidelines and you have no say in the matter.  Most employers 
don't complain about which editor you use (be it vi, emacs, or 
some other editor - unless it costs them a lot of $$), but I 
*have* seen plenty who demand the code be formatted in some 
stated fashion - for whatever reason.  I've seen programmers 
reformat complete source files because their "right thing" did 
not meet the company standard "right thing".

jason> 
jason> _______________________________________________
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jason> 

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