From webkit-dev Sat Jul 25 12:25:48 2009 From: George Staikos Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:25:48 +0000 To: webkit-dev Subject: Re: [webkit-dev] Reformatting-only patches being applied to trunk Message-Id: X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=webkit-dev&m=124852477124265 On 25-Jul-09, at 6:46 AM, Maciej Stachowiak wrote: > > On Jul 25, 2009, at 2:08 AM, Oliver Hunt wrote: > >> I've just noticed that there have been a few purely style related >> patches being landed in the tree recently, I don't believe these >> are a good idea and that any further reformatting only patches be >> rejected. >> >> Historically we have avoided purely style related changes as they >> impact our ability to track code changes efficiently and make >> patch merging more complex. The general approach to code cleanup >> is to clean up regions of code as we work in them -- this means >> that more-or-less the only code effected by reformatting is code >> that was being modified anyway. >> >> Does anyone disagree with this approach? > > My opinion: > > I think pure style/formatting changes should be separated from > substantive behavior changes. I like it when style changes come as > separate patches but in coordination with other patches that make > substantive changes to the area. It's true that we've never made a > comprehensive effort to reformat all the code to match style > guidelines. But we have had some pure style cleanup changes to > sections of the code, and have made some big changes like the one- > class-per-file split long ago, as well as renaming our top-level > namespaces. > > I would say for files that are already close to correct style, > minor changes to fix the last few issues are likely a good idea. > The cost is low and the benefit of making our code more consistent > is worthwhile. > > We prefer to fix style gradually, but doing some systematically is > ok. If some of these changes end up being big, it may be worth > broader discussion. Large-scale reformatting is something that has > project-wide impact. > > More generally though, I would say now is a good time to do code > cleanup and refactoring. It seems like a good time for some > consolidation and entropy removal, after a lengthy period of > aggressive feature development. I agree with this. I don't like reformatting changes at all unless the code is really truly illegible, but if they're done, they should be done separately from changes that actually have substance. -- George Staikos Torch Mobile Inc. http://www.torchmobile.com/ _______________________________________________ webkit-dev mailing list webkit-dev@lists.webkit.org http://lists.webkit.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/webkit-dev