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The typesetting is used to convey information though. I use indentation to convey information about connected concepts. The indentation of my in code comments c
by slededit 8y ago
The typesetting is used to convey information though. I use indentation to convey information about connected concepts. The indentation of my in code comments conveys how important they are and whether we're at the start of a new paragraph.
Im more explicit than most but everyone does this to some degree. The most basic example is indenting code blocks.
Generally I find it harder to debug auto formatted code. I lose information of who the author(s) were and it makes it harder to see where breaks in ideas can happen.
Back when I was in Excel every section had its own style and unwritten rules - inevitable with 30 year software. Once the code is auto formatted all information about those unwritten rules is lost.
- oftenwrong 8y agoGood point; some meaningful typesetting may be lost. Then again, if such a system were used, programmers would avoid writing code that made significant use of non-syntactically-relevant aspects of code. Furthermore, it might influence language designers to make documentation part of the language syntax.
- slededit 8y agoits not really documentation per se. It's flaws programmers are prone to. Everyone has their own set. Knowing the author in an abstract sense speeds up the process.