[RFC} running a formatter over the Java code

[Anthonys Lists]

On 06/08/2014 08:28, Stephan Bergmann wrote:
> On 08/05/2014 10:26 AM, Noel Grandin wrote:
>> Would there be any objections to my running a formatter over the
>> existing Java LO code (with the exception of the newer Android stuff) ?
>>
>> Because at the moment
>> - it has very little consistency
>> - and it appears that at some point in time a tabs-to-spaces conversion
>> was done, but not all the files followed the same tab-size convention,
>> so some of the formatting is now REALLY out.
>
> With no mechanism in place to automatically enforce a specific 
> formatting algorithm, code formatted according to that algorithm will 
> over time start to deviate from it again, anyway.  Hence, for already 
> well-formatted code, arguably the only effect of such a reformatting 
> is to make it harder to trace through the git history.

> Therefore, an alternative approach could be to do a mass reformatting 
> only for code that would truly benefit from it, like code whose broken 
> tabs/spaces indentation has made it become "REALLY out" by now. That 
> would of course be a more laborious commit than a wholesale 
> modification of all *.java files.
>

Okay (and I understand why people don't want the system messing about 
with commits), but would it make sense or even be possible (if a 
formatting cleanup is done) to put a server-side hook that says "this 
formatting is non-standard, are you sure?". And maybe only for places 
that have been cleaned up ...


> Or maybe I'm exaggerating the negative impact on browsing the git 
> history, but that is at least what I feel after many a uses of git blame.
>
Or another possibility - have client-side hooks available so that those 
developers *who* *choose* *to* can have the code formatted their 
favourite way on checkout, and then converted back to standard on 
commit. In other words it's opt-in rather than automatic (which seems to 
be what has panicked most people).

Oh - and while it's a trivial issue, it's exactly the same thing - most 
git repositories DO reformat text on checkin/checkout. it's that (cr)lf 
thing, which if you don't do it will break a repository that has both 
Windows and DOS committers. Although that's not an argument in favour of 
a far more intrusive reformat ... :-)

Cheers,
Wol