On Wed, Sep 02, 2009 at 11:44:18AM -0400, William Case wrote: > Hi; Hi Bill, > I have just been reading Documentation/Coding Style for the 2.6 kernel. > It goes on at length about when and when not to use white spaces. > > E.g. > "Do not leave trailing white space at the ends of lines. Some editors > with "smart" indentation will insert white space at the beginning of new > lines as appropriate, so you can start typing the next line of code > right away. ..... " > > In other places, people go to great lengths and use specialized programs > to remove white spaces, especially trailing white spaces. Yet, I have > read, in K&R and elsewhere, that 'C' compilers like gcc just ignore or > throw out any unneeded white space. > > So, why the concern over extra white spaces in 'C' code? The compiler won't care. It is the source code management tools that will have a bit more difficulty. In particular, trailing whitespace might not look any different to you on your screen, but it does look different to diff(1), unless you use the "-B" and/or "-b" switches. It can be a challenge to merge code if you have inadvertantly added whitespace to existing, or to your own source code. I haven't looked at the standards in a while, but it probably also has something to say about leading whitespace being consistently spaces or tabs, but not both, and a standard conversion for tabs to spaces. Whitespace *is* very important in Python, but you haven't asked about that... > Regards Bill slainte mhath, RGB -- Richard Guy Briggs -- ~\ -- ~\ <hpv.tricolour.net> <www.TriColour.net> -- \___ o \@ @ Ride yer bike! Ottawa, ON, CANADA -- Lo_>__M__\\/\%__\\/\% Vote! -- <greenparty.ca>_____GTVS6#790__(*)__(*)________(*)(*)_________________