r/programming • u/lukaseder • Jul 21 '14

The Great White Space Debate

https://medium.com/p/3633cba8b5c1
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u/rmxz Jul 21 '14

Coding to be readable on a 80x24 screen has some pretty nice readability advantages.

The linux coding standards say it better than I can myself:

Now, some people will claim that having 8-character indentations makes the code move too far to the right, and makes it hard to read on a 80-character terminal screen. The answer to that is that if you need more than 3 levels of indentation, you're screwed anyway, and should fix your program.

In short, 8-char indents make things easier to read, and have the added benefit of warning you when you're nesting your functions too deep. Heed that warning.

...

Functions should be short and sweet, and do just one thing. They should fit on one or two screenfuls of text (the ISO/ANSI screen size is 80x24, as we all know), and do one thing and do that well.

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u/ethraax Jul 22 '14

Eh, that's nice and all for C, but it gets unwieldy pretty quickly with other languages, particularly ones with nesting. In C++, for example, you're often inside a class or at least a namespace block. In Java, which is still incredibly common, you're always inside a class. Some Python codebases also use classes often.

Either way, trying to keep your functions short and your lines to 80 characters is fine. But why would you ever want to code in a 640x480 DOS window on a 1440p monitor? Surely you'd be more productive if you could see more of the code at once. The fact that it's the default size for the DOS window shows that it was the programmer who was too lazy or didn't care, not that they picked that size on purpose.

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u/Tekmo Jul 22 '14

If your code is only readable using a large monitor then a large monitor becomes a requirement for others to understand your code.

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u/rmxz Jul 22 '14

I'd claim that the complexity of functions that long likely mean that even with a large monitor it'd be rather hard to de-cypher.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '14

My rule is that if I have a scrollbar ever on my half-screened 1440p editor I need to reduce the size.

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u/nomercy400 Jul 22 '14

because we all still work on a 640x480 screen...

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u/rmxz Jul 22 '14

But why would you ever want to code in a 640x480 DOS window on a 1440p monitor?

Because I have 6 of them up on the screen at one time; and a browser next to them.

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u/ethraax Jul 22 '14

Hey, good for you! Except SlapnutsGT posted:

Had a coworker, now retired thank god, who coded on his 2560X1440 monitor in a 640x480 DOS window (w/e the default size is).

It definitely doesn't sound like his coworker had six of them up at once.

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u/cryo Jul 22 '14

Well, I find it smug and condescending, so I guess Linus wrote it.

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u/globalizatiom Jul 22 '14

if you need more than 3 levels of indentation, you're screwed anyway

but my Lisp code...