Minor whitespace changes relating to lines of code that are being changed

[Chris Sherlock]

On Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 12:18 AM Stephan Bergmann <
stephan.bergmann at allotropia.de> wrote:

> On 13.02.25 11:36, Chris Sherlock wrote:
> > I see commits all the time where someone changes a line of code and
> changes the whitespacing in that same line of code.
>
> I occasionally see such too, and always wonder why people do that.  My
> objections are twofold:
>
> For one, unnecessary and unrelated changes are distractions when looking
> at a commit.
>
...

> And for another, what is the benefit of such random whitespace changes?
> The code is readable, before and after.


I'm not following the argument. If whitespacing changes don't make the code
less readable or more readable, then why would a small whitespacing change
that makes the code more consistent with the surrounding code style on the
lines of code you are modifying make a difference?


>   (To paraphrase
> an example from the original PragProg book:  Mechanical workers also
> don't spend time making their power drills look beautiful.  It's tools
> for them that need to get their job done in a professional way, but it's
> irrelevant that they may look patched and ugly.)
>

There are plenty of craftsmen who want to look after their tools.

That's my take on it.  Of course, YMMV
>

Indeed.
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