Re: I can't believe it...

Hi Alexander, > Thats not exactly backwards, it's a matter of style. I definately prefer > spaces, so I don't really agree with you. Writing a monolithic application in assembly is also a matter of style. Does that make it sensible? I would venture that instead it makes it ridiculous. You prefer spaces so you advocate forcing a particular hard-coded formatting on everyone else. :( > The coding standards are very strict, but that's what PEAR is for. PEAR is > meant to be a rather small repository for highly reusable, high quality > classes, standard classes, and the standard also applies to the coding style. That is indeed a very noble and valuable concept, exactly the kind of thing that I want to see more of these days. Unfortunately it is flawed at heart by the coding standards. Tabs can be reset and resized, spaces can't. Spaces will give the maximum compatability across all text editors but the benefits of tabs outweigh this as they give the individual the choice without affecting anyone else. Text editors which can't cope should be moved out of the seventies and into the 21st century or not used to create reusable classes. > > It saddens me that so many programmers today have no clue about > > the importance of usability and flexibility, mostly in the Unix and > > windoze camps. :( > > Maybe you're misinformed about the goals of PEAR. My reactionary post was so inflammatory because of the sheer irony that a project like PEAR has a particular concept at heart which is in complete contrast to the spirit of the goals! It insists on an unflexible method for textual formatting when there is a highly usable, configurable and personal alternative. I apologise for my tone, I just got a bit heated, I get so frustrated with a lot of the bad ideas I see around me that affect what I want to do (in this case help out). :( > > I, unfortunately, will not be contributing to the PEAR project as long > > as arcane concepts are employed. > > What? Standards are arcane? The use of spaces for formatting has long been superseded as a standard, just look at HTML - you can't even have two spaces in a row, the concepts behind this decision are especially applicable to source code. > > Whoever came up with those coding standards has a LOT to learn about > > effective computing. > > PEAR is not meant to be developed easily, quite the opposite. It's meant to > be used easily and an example for people to learn from. That's the way I write all my software, when looking at all the various methods of coding it is the one that shines out as the right way to do things. In the same way so does the use of tabs over spaces, I was absolutely stunned that whoever came up with the noble concept of PEAR couldn't see that. All the best... Conor