C99: Suggestions for style(9)

[Julian Elischer]

David Malone wrote:

> 
> As I said, the point of a style guide is consistency. Changing it
> doesn't promote consistency, so there needs to be a good reason for
> the change, rather than a good reason not to change. In my opinion,
> there isn't a strong reason. Similarly for parens around return
> values - there's nothing (substantial) wrong with either rule, so
> they should probably be left as-is.

Many of the previous changes to style(9) came from cases where
the existing rules led to programmers increasing their chances
of making errors, or people found themselves often misinterpreting
code in the same way, over and over again. Changing them to bring
them closer to someone's personal style has never been an acceptable
reason. There is a barrier to entry that any change must overcome
which is "It will decrease code consistency (by definition) so
it it worth it?" .

"parens on return statements is an example.. there are some 
posibilities as to what one can do with this, but I really do find 
that the parens are part of the style that I'd notice as inconsistent.


>