3 ms·
There is this: "Program indentation and comprehensibility (1983) by R J Miara, J A Musselman, J A Navarro, B Shneiderman" http://www.cs.umd.edu/~ben/papers/Mia
by praptak 13y ago
There is this: "Program indentation and comprehensibility (1983) by R J Miara, J A Musselman, J A Navarro, B Shneiderman"
http://www.cs.umd.edu/~ben/papers/Miara1983Program.pdf http://www.cs.umd.edu/~ben/papers/Miara1983Program.pdf
I'd classify it as an attempt rather than something decisive but whatever floats your boat.
- damncabbage 13y agop866: The level of indentation that seems to produce optimal results in comprehension is between 2 and 4 spaces; as the number of spaces increase, the comprehension level decreases. On the other hand, the sample program hard parts that were indented nine times (!) in places. It's an interesting read, but I'd not try to use it in a discussion. Personally, I don't care; just pick one (hopefully one that matches what most people are using with that language, eg. 2 spaces for Ruby), and get on with it.
- praptak 13y agoYup, they seem to have used an overly indent-happy indentation scheme. Two separate indents: he 'begin' after the 'for' and for the block body is superfluous. This raises the concern that their results are biased towards smaller indents.