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Posted by MaxLeiter 6 days ago

Formatting code should be unnecessary(maxleiter.com)
350 points | 476 commentspage 7
pandemic_region 6 days ago|
I wish for Java to have a built-in formatter just like Go has. Enough with these plugins and google-format and messy intelij settings.
anacrolix 5 days ago||
you don't say
GuB-42 5 days ago||
And yet, judging by the number of comments, it is definitely not a solved problem :)
paphillips 5 days ago||
Ahh yes, nothing brings out the strong opinions like formatting. Let's do SQL next!
_ZeD_ 6 days ago||
good luck with that.. I didn't had a decent IDE capable of even implementing elastic tab stops... I expect people using hex editors to flip bytes directly on the binary blob saved on disk instead of using the appropriate tools to view the "source" files.

btw: have a look at how much disdain was reserved for systemd and its pletora of binary blobs + custom tools (e.g. the journal stuff) ... and that was basically forced upon from the distributions

cnnlives83 6 days ago||
It basically is, unless you’re in a whitespace-Nazi language like Python (no offense!).

It doesn’t get much less formatted than Minified JavaScript, except maybe Perl or Brainfuck.

kesor 6 days ago|
Minified JS often comes with mangling the names of functions, variables, etc... Formatters and prettifiers lack the ability to bring back the original names and meaning.
numtel 6 days ago|
With how much LLMs do nowadays, I'm waiting for the time when specifying types is unnecessary. Like, it if can write code, shouldn't we also be able to have an AI type checker?
IshKebab 5 days ago||
Systematic checking like that is pretty much LLM's worst case. They're really bad at it. Definitely better to use them to suggest types.
Frieren 6 days ago|||
Correctness is a key characteristic of a compiler.

To have something that sometimes checks the types and some times does is not a feasible solution.

linhns 5 days ago||
It writes better when correct type is specified beforehand. So chicken and egg problem you have.