[rules-dev] indentation spaces VS tabs (\t)

[Michael Neale]

4 spaces makes sense. Tabs would be a mistake and misconfigured IDE.
I have heard that for "dense" languages - people like 2 space indents (its
recommended in scala - which I spend most of my time).

But I think DRL would look a bit funny with 2 spaces - 4 does make sense, as
DRL lines aren't very long - they don't need to be !

Nice work picking this up geoffrey - and yes, in the past I was bitten by
merge hassles.

On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 2:36 AM, Mark Proctor <mproctor at codehaus.org> wrote:

>  yes it should be 4 spaces.
>
> Mark
> On 06/09/2010 14:20, Geoffrey De Smet wrote:
> > Hi guys,
> >
> > Looks like we have different ways of indent our files.
> > I 've seen these occurrences for a single indentation on drools trunk:
> > - java files:
> > -- 4 spaces
> > -- 1 tab
> > - xml files:
> > -- 4 spaces
> > -- 3 spaces
> > -- 2 spaces
> > -- 1 tab
> > - drl files:
> > -- 4 spaces
> > -- 2 spaces
> > -- 1 tab
> > I've seen different types mixed in the same line regularly. One
> > developer created the line, another developer wrapped it in an if
> statement.
> >
> > The problem
> > ===========
> > What's the problem with mixing these different types?
> > - It stimulates merge conflicts.
> > - It obfuscates diffs.
> > - It hampers with readability.
> > Some editors show \t as 2 spaces, others as 4, others as 8. Most
> > notably, in plain HTML, firefox etc show it as 8 spaces IIRC.
> > So line A with 2 indentations of 4 spaces each
> > and line B with 2 indentations of 1 tab each
> > are not rendered starting from the same column.
> >
> > The solution proposals
> > ======================
> > We should agree on what to use.
> > Then simply configure it in eclipse/intellij:
> > - In eclipse you need to set it several times:
> > -- once in the java style (or import the eclipse-formatter.xml)
> > -- once in the xml style (even if you import the eclipse-formatter.xml
> file)
> > -- once in the text style (even if you import the eclipse-formatter.xml
> > file)
> > - In intellij, do it in code style/general.
> >
> >
> > Proposal 1) Use 4 spaces in java, xml and drl to indent.
> > Pro:
> > - The current drools eclipse formatter, trunk/eclipse-formatter.xml
> > states this for java files. Note that it says nothing about xml or drl
> > files because those need to be configured separately in eclipse, which
> > is probably the reason why some of use spaces for java files and tabs
> > for xml files.
> > - Most of our java files currently use 4 spaces
> > - The "Sun java coding conventions" state we should use 4 spaces.
> > http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/codeconventions-136091.html#262
> > "Four spaces should be used as the unit of indentation."
> >
> > Proposal 2) Use 4 spaces in java and 2 spaces in xml and drl
> > Pro:
> > - xml files can have deep indentations and 2 spaces might be clear enough
> >
> > Proposal 3) Use 1 tab in java, xml and drl to indent.
> > Pro:
> > - Eclipse uses 1 tab by default for xml files (and maybe also for java
> > files?)
> >
> > My opinion (vote?)
> > ==================
> >
> > Proposal 1) Use 4 spaces in java, xml and drl to indent.
> >
> > PS
> > ==
> > Please keep this topic isolated to the spaces VS tabs problem.
> > If you'd like to open the topic of the coding style which differs
> > between developers, please do so in a separate topic, as that one can be
> > long and unfulfilling discussion and I 'd like to settle the spaces
> > quickly...
> >
>
>
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>



-- 
Michael D Neale
home: www.michaelneale.net
blog: michaelneale.blogspot.com
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