Re: Using clang-format for formatting our code

I’ve written a basic .clang-format that inherits the GNU coding standards and adds some additional Objc settings. Unfortunately, clang-format is incapable of adding spaces before method arguments.

Has anyone an idea on how to fix this?

> On 16. Aug 2022, at 15:12, David Chisnall <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> 
> On 16/08/2022 11:18, Richard Frith-Macdonald wrote:
>>> On 16 Aug 2022, at 10:25, Hugo Melder <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> Having a consistent code style is useful both for reading and writing code, especially for contributors. The GNUstep base framework currently has a .clang-format configuration file in the project root, but is not used. We could use a configuration file from major Objective-C open source projects like WebKit, or define our own formatting guidelines.
>>> 
>>> What is your opinion towards strict code formatting?
>> We have a coding/formatting style defined in the GNUstep base documentation (coding-standards.texi), and we try to make everything conform to that standard.
>> However, I prefer *not* to refuse contributions based on stylistic deviations.   Rather I would prefer to thank the contributor, correct any issues, and encourage use of the standard format in future contributions.
>> If the .clang-format could be fixed to implement the GNUstep coding style, it might be useful for those of us who have it installed.
> 
> From using clang-format in some other projects:
> 
> - Having a machine-applied style is a huge improvement, it avoids any discussion of style in code review (aside from naming of things. clang-tidy can help a bit there) and is a big win for folks who are moving between projects with different styles.
> 
> - There's some initial pain for anyone downstream after the first time that you apply it, but this is reduced later on.  Some editors will automatically format things with a .clang-format style and this can cause downstream people to introduce accidental diffs if a .clang-format exists and isn't used.
> 
> - Different versions of clang-format produce slightly different output.  It's worth picking a version and keeping it as the default for a few years and then moving forward.
> 
> - Enforcing clang-format compliance on PRs with github actions is easy and means that you never have to review inconsistently formatted code.
> 
> David
>