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SubjectRe: Please fix or revert: [PATCH] checkpatch: add --strict tests for braces, comments and casts

* David Miller <davem@davemloft.net> wrote:

> From: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
> Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:17:20 +0200
>
> >
> > This recent checkpatch commit, added in v3.4-rc1:
> >
> > aad4f6149831 checkpatch: add --strict tests for braces, comments and casts
> >
> > made the default checkpatch run complain about the following
> > perfectly fine multi-line comment block:
> >
> > + rdp->qlen_lazy = 0;
> > + rdp->qlen = 0;
> > +
> > + /*
> > + * Adopt all callbacks. The outgoing CPU was in no shape
> > + * to advance them, so make them all go through a full
> > + * grace period.
> > + */
> > + *receive_rdp->nxttail[RCU_NEXT_TAIL] = rdp->nxtlist;
> >
>
> I would like to formally propose that we change CodingStyle so that
> our comments are of the form:
>
> /* XXX
> * YYY
> */
>
> So that we can save one line of vertical space.
>
> We've adopted this all across the networking, and the code
> looks a lot nicer as well as allowing more actual code onto a
> single window of text.

Sigh, this is sad for two reasons:

1) It's butt ugly and it violates every basic principle of
typography. Saving a line is often counter-productive, a
well placed whitespace (vertical or horizontal) will often
increase readability. Key is good balance.

If you don't "see" it as ugly it's simply because your brain
is not wired up to see 3D/2D geometry as a significant
source of information. A significant portion (I'd
guesstimate a narrow majority) of kernel hackers *does* see
2D/3D layout details in code and finds inconsistencies in
them counterproductive.

( It's roughly the same distinction that makes some people
love the typographic layout of the iPhone/iPad while
others consider it unnecessary bling. )

2) Even if it was proper typography (which it isnt), we have
Documentation/CodingStyle for damn good reasons: so that
people see a uniform style of code across the kernel. The
taste set out there is sometimes arbitrary in its details,
but one thing is certainly worse than arbitrary style rules:
*random*, inconsistent rules, because that only adds noise.

Thanks,

Ingo


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