Subject: Re: 8-space indents considered harmful
To: Mike Cheponis <mac@Wireless.Com>
From: Paul Goyette <paul@whooppee.com>
List: tech-kern
Date: 01/23/2000 15:41:37
#2 has my vote - leave well enough alone!
On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Mike Cheponis wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I don't think there was a resolution to my proposal to change KNF from
> 8-space indents to 2-4 space indents. The Shneiderman article found 2 space
> indents to be optimal, for reasons I have reported previously.
>
> Contact Prof. Ben Shneiderman <http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/ben/> if you
> want. Also. Prof. Martha Crosby at U of Hawaii has done supporting work.
>
> -----
>
> As I see it, what we have here is academic research that tells us that 2-4
> space indents are superior to 8-space indents.
>
> And as I see it, we have two choices:
>
> 1) Adopt 2-4 space indents;
>
> -or-
>
> 2) Ignore the research, damn the torpedos, if it was good enough for my
> grandaddy, then it's good enough for me! approach.
>
> The hell with the research, we don't give a damn about research, we're
> gonna stick with the old way because we're a bunch of incorrigible
> curmudgeons.
>
> And, of course, in the process make it very clear that the NetBSD
> project is not interested in improvements on how the codebase is
> managed, maintained, and enhanced.
>
>
> This approach flies in the face of everything that is NetBSD: a platform
> that uses the latest academic research for improvement.
>
>
>
> Clearly, I advocate (1).
>
> -Mike Cheponis
>
>
>
>
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