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Comment by Defletter | Hacker News Reader

Vehemently disagree. I get that go's conventions line up with your own, but when they don't, it's irritating. For example, Dart is finally coming around on the "tall" style (https://github.com/dart-lang/dart_style/issues/1253). But why should people be forced to wait for a committee (or some other lofty institution) to change a style convention that then effects everyone using the language? What's the harm in letting people write their code in the "tall" style beforehand? Why must the formatter be so insistent about it?

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> Why must the formatter be so insistent about it?

Exactly to avoid conversations like this...If you want a tall format then just add a dummy comment at the end?

Except that a prescriptive formatter with zero configurability is causing this conversation.

When you are a solo dev, everything is acceptable. When you're in a group, this can cause friction and cause real problems if people are "so insistent" about their style.

Go is a programming language developed for teams. From its syntax to core library to language server to tooling, Go is made for teams, and to minimize thinking. It's opposite of Rust. It's devilishly simple, so you can't make mistakes most of the time.

Even the logo's expression is an homage to this.

So yes, Go's formatter should be this prescriptive. The other thing is, you can continue this conversation till the end of time, but you can't argue with the formatter. It'll always do its thing.

In other words, "computer says no".

You are misunderstanding the argument: I am not against prescriptive formatters. By all means, enforce a style convention for your project, I have nothing against that, nor do I understand how you interpreted that from my comment. I am against prescriptive formatters that cannot be configured. This creates the absurd situation, as previously described, where one must appeal to 'The Committee' who decides the style convention for the entire world. This should not be necessary. Nor should you have to surround your code with formatter-disabling comments (assuming the language even supports that) to, for example, use the "tall" style, as previously mentioned. Nor should you have to literally fork the language or its tools to disable the formatter.

If something can be configured, this opens up infinite possibilities for discussions on how it should be configured. The fact that you even ASK if you should use the tall style means that you are considering the POSSIBILITY of using it that way.

Put it this way, if it is technically impossible to develop a car that have the color red, we would not be discussing or entertaining what color the next car should have. It would be red, end of story. It doesn't matter if we like red or not, it just has to be. end of story.

Yes, the code looks awful. end of story.

Hot take: stop being authoritarian with code styles, perchance? You are not so wise as to determine what is clean code for the entire world, and the ego required to believe that you are is beyond astounding. And we're still having these discussions despite unconfigurably prescriptive formatters. This idea that such formatters end these discussions is just demonstrably false... you are literally taking part in one of these discussions.

The point is, that the way it's formatted doesn't matter. It just matters that it's consistent. Consistency is better than being right.

As I've said, it's fine for people, projects, and organisations to require and enforce a particular style for their code, to demand consistency for their code. The problem comes when people with inflated egos believe they have the right to dictate how the entire world writes their code. I feel like I need to stress that this is the issue here.

The fact that Dart's formatter FAQ tells developers who are unhappy with the output to change their code to satisfy the formatter (https://github.com/dart-lang/dart_style/wiki/FAQ#i-dont-like...), rather than allowing developers to tweak the formatter to satisfy their code, is such a huge tell about their mindset. And again, these global styles do not "end the discussion" as people in this thread have asserted. The "tall style" PR (https://github.com/dart-lang/dart_style/issues/1253) refutes that. And that PR has since devolved into bickering and heated demands since its adoption into SDK 3.7.0, since it transforms people's code in ways they dislike and/or find less readable.

Just let people, projects, and organisations enforce their own styles conventions. It's not hard and it shouldn't be controversial.

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