Comments on: JavaScript style and the art of anal retention http://www.pathf.com/blogs/2007/09/javascript-styl/ Running commentary about agile development, user experience design and Ajax. Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:25:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Stephan Beal http://www.pathf.com/blogs/2007/09/javascript-styl/#comment-301 Stephan Beal Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:34:23 +0000 http://www.pathf.com/blogs/?p=240#comment-301 <p>Any coder worth is pay can pick up and run with any given style, no matter how silly or pedantic that style is. In the open source projects i run, i never place any restrictions on style. Not only do my style preferences change over time, but i find it rude to impose a style on someone who is taking time out of their life to contribute to my project. If their style bugs me *that* much then i'll re-format the code (a couple-keystroke operation in xemacs), but there's no reason in the world to fuss about coding style.</p> <p>If you find yourself fussing about coding style, it's time to stop, take a breather, and then go find something else to worry about.</p> Any coder worth is pay can pick up and run with any given style, no matter how silly or pedantic that style is. In the open source projects i run, i never place any restrictions on style. Not only do my style preferences change over time, but i find it rude to impose a style on someone who is taking time out of their life to contribute to my project. If their style bugs me *that* much then i’ll re-format the code (a couple-keystroke operation in xemacs), but there’s no reason in the world to fuss about coding style.

If you find yourself fussing about coding style, it’s time to stop, take a breather, and then go find something else to worry about.

]]> By: T.J. http://www.pathf.com/blogs/2007/09/javascript-styl/#comment-300 T.J. Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:24:49 +0000 http://www.pathf.com/blogs/?p=240#comment-300 <p>The problem is, like with writing, everyone has their own style that works for them. Unlike in the press industry, the development community, especially in web development, is very diverse. Some companies may have guidelines that are almost opposite to that of another company, while most have little or no guidelines. I'm very anal about proper spacing and format, as it makes it much easeir for me to read and debug. However when I get into the bulk of coding writing, commenting goes by the wayside all together, and I have to almost always go back through and add short comments, something which I always get chastised about. I think people should allow coders to write in the way that works best for them, while following some minor guidelines that make it universally readable. No one likes standards forced upon them. If anything, the biggest push for some sort of standard should be focused on naming conventions, as nothing is worse than having near identical variable names (firstDay, fDay, day1, etc) repeated throughout scripts.</p> The problem is, like with writing, everyone has their own style that works for them. Unlike in the press industry, the development community, especially in web development, is very diverse. Some companies may have guidelines that are almost opposite to that of another company, while most have little or no guidelines. I’m very anal about proper spacing and format, as it makes it much easeir for me to read and debug. However when I get into the bulk of coding writing, commenting goes by the wayside all together, and I have to almost always go back through and add short comments, something which I always get chastised about. I think people should allow coders to write in the way that works best for them, while following some minor guidelines that make it universally readable. No one likes standards forced upon them. If anything, the biggest push for some sort of standard should be focused on naming conventions, as nothing is worse than having near identical variable names (firstDay, fDay, day1, etc) repeated throughout scripts.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.pathf.com/blogs/2007/09/javascript-styl/#comment-299 Anonymous Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:20:35 +0000 http://www.pathf.com/blogs/?p=240#comment-299 <p>I couldn't agree with this more. Especially the part about checking the code in after spending hours cleaning up poor indentation or poor naming.</p> <p>I think that poor style in code creates poor code, though.</p> I couldn’t agree with this more. Especially the part about checking the code in after spending hours cleaning up poor indentation or poor naming.

I think that poor style in code creates poor code, though.

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