As has been pointed out many times, the research you quoted set out with
one goal - to prove that 2-4 space indents were "better" than 8 space
indents.  No, they didn't set out to find what was best, they set out to
substantiate their pre-set conclusion that 2-4 was better.

As for my background, I've been in the CS world since before most of the
folks on the list went through puberty.  I've worked in various
capacities, including 15+ years at DEC developing custom software for
customers.  I've programmed in nearly as many computer languages as the
number of languages spoken by the current Pope, everything from BASIC to
RPG-II, Algol to Snobol, and assembler on nearly as many platforms as
supported by NetBSD.

I'm definitely not voting to undermine the NetBSD codebase.  On the
contrary, I'm voting to keep it at its current extremely high level of
readability and utility.

On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Mike Cheponis wrote:

> OK, Paul, you win the vote of the quickest curmudgeon so far!  ;-)
> 
> Naturally, of course, I would like to understand exactly -why- you want to
> throw away the research and (in the process) undermine NetBSD's codebase?
> 
> -Mike
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Paul Goyette wrote:
> 
> > #2 has my vote - leave well enough alone!
> > 
> > On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Mike Cheponis wrote:
> > 
> > > 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
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > |   Paul Goyette  | PGP DSS Key fingerprint:  | E-mail addresses:     |
> > | Network Engineer|  BCD7 5301 9513 58A6 0DBC |  paul@whooppee.com    |
> > | & kernel hacker |  91EB ADB1 A280 3B79 9221 |  pgoyette@juniper.net |
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> > 
> 
> 

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|   Paul Goyette  | PGP DSS Key fingerprint:  | E-mail addresses:     |
| Network Engineer|  BCD7 5301 9513 58A6 0DBC |  paul@whooppee.com    |
| & kernel hacker |  91EB ADB1 A280 3B79 9221 |  pgoyette@juniper.net |
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