Subject: 8-space indents considered harmful
To: None <tech-kern@netbsd.org>
From: Mike Cheponis <mac@Wireless.Com>
List: tech-kern
Date: 01/23/2000 15:32:46
Hello,

I don't think there was a resolution to my proposal to change KNF from
8-space indents to 2-4 space indents.  The Shneiderman article found 2 space
indents to be optimal, for reasons I have reported previously.

Contact Prof. Ben Shneiderman  <http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/ben/> if you 
want.  Also. Prof. Martha Crosby at U of Hawaii has done supporting work.

-----

As I see it, what we have here is academic research that tells us that 2-4
space indents are superior to 8-space indents.

And as I see it, we have two choices:

1) Adopt 2-4 space indents;

-or-

2) Ignore the research, damn the torpedos, if it was good enough for my
   grandaddy, then it's good enough for me! approach.  

   The hell with the research, we don't give a damn about research, we're
   gonna stick with the old way because we're a bunch of incorrigible
   curmudgeons.

   And, of course, in the process make it very clear that the NetBSD 
   project is not interested in improvements on how the codebase is
   managed, maintained, and enhanced.

 
   This approach flies in the face of everything that is NetBSD: a platform
   that uses the latest academic research for improvement.



Clearly, I advocate (1).

-Mike Cheponis