[pacman-dev] New Guy Wants to Change Everything

[Westley Martínez]

My editor's fine.

I'm being paranoid. In this age the whitespace problem tends to occur
for cross-platform programs. And by "problem" I mean the code not
looking right. (For C anyways....)

As  for developing this thing I was wondering what the preferred method
for testing was. I mean, how do I use the development pacman without
interfering with Arch's pacman? Also, are there ways to test
installation/removal without writing to disk (there's probably a dry run
option, better check the man page)?

On Mon, 2011-01-17 at 17:03 +1000, Allan McRae wrote:

> On 17/01/11 16:23, Westley Martínez wrote:
> > Hello I'm Anikom15 and I'm new. You might know me from the Arch Linux
> > forums but whatever.
> 
> I have seen you there in between your repeated bannings...
> 
> > I'm interested in helping develop pacman considering the fact I've been
> > using the program for so long I figure I should give something back, and
> > maybe get better at C coding, too.
> >
> > Okay, one question: why does the source code use tabs instead of spaces?
> > Is there a specific reason as to why? In my experience spaces makes
> > everything easier because tabs can mess up alignment if the editor isn't
> > set properly.
> 
> How?   As long as you stick with the coding standards and always use 
> tabs there can be no issue.
> 
> > I know what you're thinking, "These new people they come
> > in and wanna change everything and then leave".
> 
> I was thinking you need to get a better editor...
> 
> > I don't wanna change
> > anything unnecessarily, I'd just like an explanation. Now just between
> > you and me I think some other conventions the code is using like return
> > statements being written like a function call are stupid as well, but
> > those don't have dire consequences like the tabs can potentially have.
> 
> White space issues having dire consequences?  It is normally the 
> non-whitespace issues that you need to worry about.
> 
> > Sorry if I sound a little invasive, I don't collaborate much.
> 
> As with any project, if you want to contribute you need to stick to the 
> established coding standards.  These are unlikely to change unless there 
> is a very good reason to do so.
> 
> Allan
>