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Discussion on: Prettier and the Beauty of Opinionated Code Formatters

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g_abud profile image
Gabriel Abud • Edited

I agree somewhat if you write code for yourself, but when you work on a team these stylistic preferences becomes detrimental. It might be an art form for you but when people are having to look at 5 different art forms in the same codebase, it's not easy. The difference between traditional art (thinking like painting) and code is that 99% of the time code is made as part of a team. There are sacrifices you have to make in any team, musicians all agree on the same tempo and key when playing in a band.

There's still room for artistic expression, but you can show that in the implementation of the code itself, not the style.

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Jon Randy 🎖️

Hence the system idea. You'd only ever work on a version styled your way. You would of course have to restyle any bits merged in to match your own taste.

I agree that most artistry is exhibited in the way the code actually functions, but the way it's presented can greatly assist you if you have developed your own ways to do it that gel better with your organisational thought processes.