kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 11/2/2016 11:47 AM, Marvin Schmidt wrote:
> Hi everybody!
> 
> I've been following the KiCad development for some time and I feel like
> quite some time is wasted on whitespaces. Be it either when new
> contributors send in reviews (I find the coding style rather hard to get
> acustomed to as well, personally) or when fixing them by hand when
> seeing them (To make things worse, this often happens in a single commit
> together with functional changes which makes it really hard to see the
> relevant bits).
> All in all it feels like the code base is in a very inconsistent state.
> According to the developer documentation you should use uncrustify with
> the provided config to make sure the your code doesn't violate the code
> style, but it seems nobody really does that since running it on the code
> base yields a big diff stat.
> I would like to propose using clang-format to enforce a consistent code
> style and tried to put together a config which resembles the current
> style as close as possible. There are a few things that can't be
> achieved the way it's currently defined by the style guide. So I want to
> ask whether you guys are willing to make some compromises in that
> regard? Considering the benefits of not having to deal with code
> formattings etc. and the time it saves I think it's well worth it.
> Additionally the use of clang-format will allow the usage of all the
> great clang tools for further tool-based code cleanups/improvements while
> maintaining the defined code style
> 
> Opinions?
> 
> Best regards,
> Marvin
> 

I generally don't like the idea of using a code style formatting tool on
every commit.  We have quite a few style items that are not defined
which means they are left to the preference of the developer such as
aligning variable names and multiple line function parameter
indentation.  Forcing these few minor style issues just ends up making
devs frustrated.  I'm not outright rejecting the idea.  If I thought I
could get all of the KiCad devs to agree on all of the undefined coding
style items, I would have done this a long time ago.  If you've ever
tried to get a group of devs to agree on a coding style, you'll
understand why I'm reluctant to open that can of worms again.  I'm happy
with what we have currently so my motivation is low to go through that
again. :)

Cheers,

Wayne