Re: clang-format

Alejandro Colomar via Mutt-dev <[email protected]> Wed, 18 Mar 2026 18:13:59 +0100
Newsgroups	gmane.mail.mutt.devel
Message-ID	<abrcrkinf_Bjwq1Z@devuan>
Hi Will,

On 2026-03-18T09:54:38-0700, Will Yardley wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 18, 2026 at 11:21:28AM +0800, Kevin J. McCarthy wrote:
> > On Wed, Mar 18, 2026 at 01:11:14AM +0100, Alejandro Colomar via Mutt-dev wrote:
> > > Okay, so I've tried today clang-format(1) for the first time, after
> > > someone suggested it in a project I co-maintain, and now have a well
> > > formed opinion about it:
> 
> > > It's pure crap.  Please don't use it.
> [...]
> > Before I drop the proposal, though, are there any Mutt devs/contributors who
> > would like to play devil's advocate?
> 
> In more or less the same boat as Robin on this.
> 
> I am not a C programmer, and can't speak to clang-format specifically. I
> will say broadly that, since starting to use them, I have really
> appreciated autoformatters generally (ruff / black for Python, prettier
> for js, etc.), especially when working with a team of people. It may
> well turn out that there isn't a good tool available for C, but I do
> think that if it is possible to find a formatter that works and can be
> enforced, there is a lot to be said for both the resulting consistency,
> and kind of taking arguments / bikeshedding about code style and
> formatting out of the equation.
> 
> I'm not sure if the concerns Alejandro mentioned are about the
> functionality of the program, its default configuration, or both. It
> does seem like the program supports formatting based on different style
> guides, and configuring certain parameters
> (https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ClangFormatStyleOptions.html), so maybe
> some objections could be overcome by either disabling certain types of
> formatting, or choosing different config settings?

The problem is the fundamental functionality of the program.  It doesn't
have any way to fix the problems with configuration.

> Or, maybe come up with the style guide first, then work backwards from
> that to see if a formatter / formatter config can be created that will
> work?

I don't know if there are any other formatters that would be good.
And I don't think writing a formatter from scratch just for mutt(1)
would be reasonable.  But what is clear is that clang-format(1) is
really bad.  If anyone wants to work on a new formatter, or knows of
another formatter that is better, I'm fine with that.


Have a lovely day!
Alex

-- 
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es>
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