Re: [dpdk-dev] tools brainstorming

[Jay Rolette <rolette@infiniteio.com>]

On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 2:16 PM, Neil Horman <nhorman@tuxdriver.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 09, 2015 at 11:31:39AM -0500, Jay Rolette wrote:
> > On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 5:38 PM, Stephen Hemminger <
> > stephen@networkplumber.org> wrote:
> >
> > > On Wed, 8 Apr 2015 16:29:54 -0600
> > > Jay Rolette <rolette@infiniteio.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > "C comments" includes //, right? It's been part of the C standard
> for a
> > > long time now...
> > >
> > > Yes but.
> > > I like to use checkpatch and checkpatch enforces kernel style which
> does
> > > not allow // for
> > > comments.
> > >
> >
> > Fork checkpatch and disable that bit? DPDK isn't the kernel, so no
> > requirement to follow all of its rules
> >
>
> Doesn't that beg the question, why?  I understand the DPDK isn't the
> kernel, but
> we're not talking about clarity of code, not anything functional to that
> code.
> It seems we would be better served by just taking something that works here
> rather than re-inventing the wheel and digging into the minuate of what
> type of
> comments should be allowed (unless there is a compelling reason to change
> it
> that supercedes the avilable tools).  If not checkpath, then some other
> tool,
> but It seems to me that coding style is one of those things where we can
> bend to
> the tool rather than taking the time to make the tool do exactly whats
> desired,
> at least until someone gets the time to modify it.
>

Fair question.

It depends a bit on how much you want to encourage patch contributions. Is
it worth adding more pain for folks trying to contribute patches for things
like this?

Should we force someone to spend time redoing a patch because of which way
they do their parenthesis? What about number of spaces to indent code? //
vs /* */ comments? None of these matter functionally and they don't affect
maintenance generally.

If someone is modifying existing code, then yeah, they should follow the
prevailing style (indention level, brace alignment, etc.) of the file they
are in. It helps readability, which makes maintenance easier. However, IMO,
mixing // and /* */ for comments doesn't affect the readability of the
source.

I know if I submit a patch and the only feedback is that I should have used
/* */ for comments, I'm extremely unlikely spend extra time to resubmit the
patch for pedantry.