[Haskell-cafe] Optimal line length for haskell
Michael Orlitzky
michael at orlitzky.com
Mon Oct 29 16:06:43 CET 2012
On 10/29/2012 10:28 AM, Alexander Solla wrote:
>
> In any language, a line longer than 80 characters usually (but not
> always) suggests that you might want to stop and rethink your design. In
> many cases a refactoring or two will greatly simplify the code and
> reduce your line length as a result.
>
>
> I disagree. That might be true for imperative languages, where width is
> indicative of deep nesting and its associated problems. But it is not
> true for a functional language, where it is merely indicative of a wide
> "normal form". Yes, the normal form can sometimes be refactored, but to
> what end? You might easily end up refactoring out of the level of
> abstraction you actually want. Or the wide form might have useful
> properties, like the ability to sort the lines of source code
> alphanumerically (which would be lost if you switched to a stanza-based
> format)
Well, I did leave the door open for special cases with "usually (but not
always)." I know I've had to go over 80 chars before with huge constants
or long test names.
If you're willing to sacrifice maintain/readability for some other
property (e.g. source code sortability), then I don't think my point
applies.
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