[Engine-devel] Java code formatting

[Alon Bar-Lev]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Doron Fediuck" <dfediuck at redhat.com>
> To: "Alon Bar-Lev" <alonbl at redhat.com>
> Cc: "engine-devel" <engine-devel at ovirt.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 4:48:22 PM
> Subject: Re: [Engine-devel] Java code formatting
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Alon Bar-Lev" <alonbl at redhat.com>
> > To: "Doron Fediuck" <dfediuck at redhat.com>
> > Cc: "engine-devel" <engine-devel at ovirt.org>
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 4:33:20 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Engine-devel] Java code formatting
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Doron Fediuck" <dfediuck at redhat.com>
> > > To: "Alon Bar-Lev" <alonbl at redhat.com>
> > > Cc: "engine-devel" <engine-devel at ovirt.org>
> > > Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 4:28:15 PM
> > > Subject: Re: [Engine-devel] Java code formatting
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Alon Bar-Lev" <alonbl at redhat.com>
> > > > To: "Doron Fediuck" <dfediuck at redhat.com>
> > > > Cc: "engine-devel" <engine-devel at ovirt.org>
> > > > Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 4:17:18 PM
> > > > Subject: Re: [Engine-devel] Java code formatting
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > > From: "Doron Fediuck" <dfediuck at redhat.com>
> > > > > To: "engine-devel" <engine-devel at ovirt.org>
> > > > > Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 4:07:53 PM
> > > > > Subject: [Engine-devel] Java code formatting
> > > > > 
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > > Recently I saw many patches with multiple code re-formatting.
> > > > > When looking into it, we saw that many people didn't use the
> > > > > project
> > > > > policy, and now we have many files with bad formatting.
> > > > > 
> > > > > So I just posted a big ugly fix for this[1], and hopefully if
> > > > > accepted
> > > > > people should start using the right conventions and reduce
> > > > > the
> > > > > amount
> > > > > of non-relevant changes we see in the patches.
> > > > > 
> > > > > I'm aware of the fact that this may create some issues when
> > > > > porting
> > > > > patches, but better sooner than later.
> > > > > Doron.
> > > > > 
> > > > > [1] http://gerrit.ovirt.org/#/c/10541/1
> > > > 
> > > > Hi,
> > > > 
> > > > These automatic conversions are not better than current state,
> > > > also
> > > > I
> > > > don't think that this is that important. If you want machine
> > > > written
> > > > code, then also provide commit hook to reformat anything, and
> > > > probably machines to read it.
> > > > 
> > > > I, personally, think that this change over the sources I manage
> > > > did
> > > > not do any good.
> > > > 
> > > > Regards,
> > > > Alon
> > > 
> > > Alon,
> > > there's a formatting convention for the project set long ago.
> > > If you feel it needs to be fixed, go ahead and suggest a fix for
> > > the xml.
> > > Otherwise we end up in the current chaos, where every 2nd or 3rd
> > > patch carries unneeded changes.
> > > 
> > 
> > What do you mean unneeded changes? how do you prevent this in
> > future?
> > 
> > Alon
> 
> Unneeded changes is when you get one line of code fixed due to a bug,
> and many others re-indented.
> Best prevention is if people would make sure to use the same
> conventions.
> We also have a checkstyle which monitors important issues such as
> trailing
> white spaces, localization, etc.
> 

But how do you prevent this in future, not all working in same editor nor same styles.
You can say that once in a while you perform cross over auto re-format...
I am not native Java programmer but this sounds very strange thing to do, I don't think I know of any project that does that.

The main problem is that people commit stuff they don't touch due to their editor behavior, which tread the whole source as if it was at its disposal, while cation should be taken not to modify extra stuff.

So maybe just to reject patches that touches lines which are not belong to the patch it-self.

Alon