From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Date: Sat,  7 Apr 2018 22:38:20 +0200
From: tlaronde@polynum.com
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net>
Message-ID: <20180407203820.GA29602@polynum.com>
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	<20180407131433.6819fa0c7eec6bac85da70c2@eigenstate.org>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] Plan 9's style(6) manual page
Topicbox-Message-UUID: d3fda8bc-ead9-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025

On Sat, Apr 07, 2018 at 01:14:33PM -0700, Ori Bernstein wrote:
> On Sat, 07 Apr 2018 19:00:37 +0300, 8halfan@airmail.cc wrote:
>=20
> > Just an amateur C programmer looking for answers. My main inspiration=
s for
> > code style is K&R 2nd edition and I'm curious about the instructions =
in Plan
> > 9's style(6) manual page (for reference,=20
> > http://man.cat-v.org/plan_9/6/style). I've
> > tried to think about the motivations, but not everything is as clear =
as=20
> > it seems.
>=20
> The manpage explains the reasoning:
>=20
>     Ultimately, the goal is to write code that fits in with the
>     other code around it and the system as a whole.
>=20
> So, most of the answers to your questions are simply that someone had a
> preference early on. They wrote the code. If you want your code to fit
> in with theirs, this is how to do it.

Indeed. When there are almost as many rational arguments for or
against some choice, this means that the subject is not essential
(there is no "truth"). In this case, for engineering reasons, the
goal shall be consistency: one person ("the chief") decides.
Furthermore, if the code is consistent (in the---french---army we
say: "paum=E9s mais group=E9s" i.e.  "lost but together") you can apply
regular expressions processing to the whole because there _are_ rules,
if in whatever future the "chief" decides differently...

--=20
        Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
                     http://www.kergis.com/
                       http://www.sbfa.fr/
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