Where do you set your right margin?
-
Where do you set your right margin when coding? To put that
another way, if you have a long line of code, how long would it have to
be for you to break it up into multiple lines. Obviously, sometimes you
break even a small line for readibility. But other times, you'll
have just a really long line of code that's all one statement. Do
you have any rules for when to break it? I'm thinking that 105
characters is about right.
-
I use 120 - 160 if i'm not planning on accessing it on
a terminal so that i can keep SQL queries in a single line ( e.g. "DELETE FROM{$GLOBALS['database_prefix']}pages
WHEREid
= '$id' LIMIT 1" ).
Generally 80 is the most common for historical reasons ( 80*24
terminals ).
-
I never, ever go past 80 columns. It doesn't matter how wide my screen
is. Long lines are always a chore to read, be it plain text or source
code.
As for where I break long lines, I have a simple rule: on a line like:
long_variable_name = long_function_name(long_argument1, long_argument_two);
I either break like that:
long_variable_name =
long_function_name(long_argument1, long_argument_two);
or like that:
long_variable_name = long_function_name(
long_argument1, long_argument_two);
if the first version doesn't fit whithin the margin. If I have a really
long expression involving other operators than assignment, I break
before an operator.
It's not very uniform, but it makes the most readable code, IMO.
-
I keep long lines as long lines mostly, since breaking them up usually results in less legible code.
Except where not. :) It really all depends on the situation. There is no correct maximum line length.
When
I add/subtract several things in onse statement, I usually do this syntax:
[code]var bladibla = getWidth('something')
+ sometothervalue
+ athirdvalue
- thatvalue
+ 'finalize';
[/code]
Same goes for concatenating bits of string, such as long SQL statements:
[code]
var foo = 'sdkjs ,ksb slvk el'
+ 'zsdm,vhjybsdvilblbvil sb l '
+ 'xvsdkgs elvisuhvlsuihodigei'
+ 'sdkjvguskdjgysfku';
[/code]
The separations aren't arbitray, of course, and not based on some random character count. I'm not sure, but mabye I or someone should do a benchmark to see if the [+] method is faster to run than the [variable +=] method. May not differ much anyway, though the +'s can easily be compiled away.
-
this is a test to see if I can use a TAB inside the [ code ] tag.
[code]
if (this)
do that;
[/code]
meh
-
Tarnation!