[Haskell-cafe] Comma in the front

[Robert Dockins]

On Jul 12, 2006, at 9:18 PM, Joel Reymont wrote:

> Are cool kids supposed to put the comma in front like this?
>
> , foo
> , bar
> , baz
>
> Is this for historical or other reasons because Emacs formats  
> Haskell code well enough regardless.
>
> 	Thanks, Joel
>

I personally like this style.  It's a little hard to say why, but let  
me attempt.  I think it's related to layout.  Layout trained me to  
regard the end of lines as uninteresting, and the beginning as  
interesting.  Thus, I forget to put separators at the ends of lines  
(freedom from the tyranny of the semicolon!), but I always notice if  
a comma or semicolon is missing at the beginning of a line.  Its very  
obvious because they're all aligned vertically and, as I said,  
Haskell trains you to notice the leading edges of lines if you use  
layout.  It also makes it very visually obvious where the list/tuple/ 
do block ends when you line up the brackets with the separators.

IMO the patch/diff/darcs issue is a red herring.  It sounds like an  
after the fact justification to me.


Rob Dockins

Speak softly and drive a Sherman tank.
Laugh hard; it's a long way to the bank.
           -- TMBG