Indenting and alignment style

[Tim Bray]

In article <1988Dec9.190711.4119 at utzoo.uucp> henry at utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>... Insisting that everyone
>>conform to what you happen to like and/or are used to isn't just
>>religion, it is neanderthal religion...
>
>No, it's called "having standards", actually.
Hear, hear.  It is totally impossible to get more than about 3 competent
Unix hacks unanimous about the ideal coding style.  The important thing
though, is that

1. most of the popular coding styles are actually pretty good.  
2. once your hindbrain has got used to a particular coding style, reading
   code in that style gets easier and easier, and it becomes clear that
   struggling with nonstandard code is a COMPLETE WASTE of intellectual 
   effort (maintaining software is difficult enough already).

So I think for any project, somebody in charge should get fascist and
enforce some (it doesn't really matter which) coding style with an iron
hand.  In fact, even arguing about coding style is an (entertaining)
waste of time.
Cheers, Tim Bray, New OED Project, U of Waterloo