13 ms·

One of the best changes in the last ten years (imo) has been the widespread adoption of code formatters. Particularly those officially supported by the language

by agd 5y ago

One of the best changes in the last ten years (imo) has been the widespread adoption of code formatters. Particularly those officially supported by the language. It makes reading easier and writing faster. And no more time wasted on pointless formatting debates.

agumonkey 5y ago
I can't fathom how many companies filled people's brain with stuff like that. "good practice"
skohan 5y ago
Oof yes I remember the first time I joined a dev team with pedantic tastes in terms of code review. It’s amazing to imagine the amount of collective time which has been wasted on trivialities over the years.
judofyr 5y ago
I like (and actively use) code formatters, but honestly I don't understand why people make such a big fuss about its impact. Weirdly formatted code impacts maybe 1% of my "reading code"-ability — at least after I accept "this is a bit messy" and stop being irrationally annoyed. > And no more time wasted on pointless formatting debates. There will always be pointless debates: Naming variables, deciding which linters to enable, using reduce() vs. a loop, classes vs functions and so on. This is a cultural problem which occur because you're not focusing enough on the things that actually matter ("is the code correct?"; "can we safely ship this to production?"; "what's the long-term effect of introducing this abstraction/feature/capability?"). I love thinking about code as art, and I have numerous side projects which explores this, but when it comes to shipping real features on a deadline we need to create something which works, not something which evokes a good feeling inside me when reading the code.
- pdimitar 5y ago
  > I don't understand why people make such a big fuss about its impact I don't know, ask them? We here are on board with using them. ;) I've met such problematic people. You can't reason with them, it's almost a religion. But when you sell standardized tooling to your manager plus emphasize how this will reduce internal team friction, you can elegantly eliminate them from the equation. I did it before and I plan on doing it again. We are here to write code and be productive, not to discuss aesthetics.

by agd 5y ago

agumonkey 5y ago

I can't fathom how many companies filled people's brain with stuff like that. "good practice"

skohan 5y ago

Oof yes I remember the first time I joined a dev team with pedantic tastes in terms of code review. It’s amazing to imagine the amount of collective time which has been wasted on trivialities over the years.

judofyr 5y ago

I like (and actively use) code formatters, but honestly I don't understand why people make such a big fuss about its impact. Weirdly formatted code impacts maybe 1% of my "reading code"-ability — at least after I accept "this is a bit messy" and stop being irrationally annoyed. > And no more time wasted on pointless formatting debates. There will always be pointless debates: Naming variables, deciding which linters to enable, using reduce() vs. a loop, classes vs functions and so on. This is a cultural problem which occur because you're not focusing enough on the things that actually matter ("is the code correct?"; "can we safely ship this to production?"; "what's the long-term effect of introducing this abstraction/feature/capability?"). I love thinking about code as art, and I have numerous side projects which explores this, but when it comes to shipping real features on a deadline we need to create something which works, not something which evokes a good feeling inside me when reading the code.

pdimitar 5y ago
> I don't understand why people make such a big fuss about its impact I don't know, ask them? We here are on board with using them. ;) I've met such problematic people. You can't reason with them, it's almost a religion. But when you sell standardized tooling to your manager plus emphasize how this will reduce internal team friction, you can elegantly eliminate them from the equation. I did it before and I plan on doing it again. We are here to write code and be productive, not to discuss aesthetics.