This is the mail archive of the
gdb-patches@sourceware.org
mailing list for the GDB project.
Re: [RFC] Change coding style rule: 80 column "hard limit" for ChangeLogs
- From: Doug Evans <dje at google dot com>
- To: Joel Brobecker <brobecker at adacore dot com>
- Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz at gnu dot org>, gdb-patches <gdb-patches at sourceware dot org>
- Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2014 09:56:22 -0800
- Subject: Re: [RFC] Change coding style rule: 80 column "hard limit" for ChangeLogs
- Authentication-results: sourceware.org; auth=none
- References: <yjt261q0r886 dot fsf at ruffy dot mtv dot corp dot google dot com> <83bnzsw6ro dot fsf at gnu dot org> <20140105040005 dot GA3802 at adacore dot com>
[apologies for the resend]
On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 8:00 PM, Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com> wrote:
>> AFAIK, that's because this is the default in Emacs's commands that
>> manipulate ChangeLog entries. Here:
>>
>> (define-derived-mode change-log-mode text-mode "Change Log"
>> "Major mode for editing change logs; like Indented Text mode.
>> Prevents numeric backups and sets `left-margin' to 8 and `fill-column' to 74.
>> New log entries are usually made with \\[add-change-log-entry] or \\[add-change-log-entry-other-window].
>> Each entry behaves as a paragraph, and the entries for one day as a page.
>> Runs `change-log-mode-hook'.
>> \n\\{change-log-mode-map}"
>> (setq left-margin 8
>> fill-column 74 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>> indent-tabs-mode t
>> tab-width 8
>> show-trailing-whitespace t)
>
> We can transparently override it, I think, since our ChangeLog entries have:
>
>> Local Variables:
>> mode: change-log
>> left-margin: 8
>> fill-column: 74
>> version-control: never
>> coding: utf-8
>> End:
>
> (to be confirmed, since I am no longer an emacs user).
>
> That being said, and fwiw only, I subscribe to the idea that 80
> characters is a little bit on the long side. I think it's a good
> idea to have one limit, and one limit only, but I'd prefer to
> make it closer to 70 than 80 - maybe 74 could be a good compromise.
> Ie, raise the soft-limit for the code to 74, leave the hard-limit
> to 80, and thus keep ChangeLogs as is.
That would not achieve the goal of one limit only,
unless ChangeLogs have a hard limit of 80, and 74 is the soft limit.
[I'm treating "hard" as "do not violate unless there's a compelling reason",
and "soft" as a guideline. btw, I can no longer think of that word without also
thinking of Pirates of the Caribbean. :-)]
> Other than the opinion above, it's not really all that important to me.
> So I'm good with whatever reasonable limit the group decides. We just
> need to make sure we document the decision, with reference to the
> discussion.
I'm not overly fond of anything below 80 (well, 79, but I certainly
don't reject patches that use 80).
Vertical space usage is not unimportant, and comments like this:
/* Some comment, ... mumble
it. */
bug me when there's more than enough space to use one fewer line.
But if it's just a soft limit, then at least I can avoid it in my own patches.