An Ode To Code Formatting Tools

Your modifications fix the calculationBut I’m afraid you forgot a tabulation.This is the beginning of your tribulation.Your perfect correction won’t bring you elation.

If there was a way to just automate,Maybe you could avoid arguing with your mate.Should there be a space after the bracketHow many white spaces, How many line breaks

Did you know tools could format your troubles away?You have to choose, there is no midwayTool-able or arguably palatable?Tastefulness is debatable, not checkable!

You may be expressionist or constructivist.Alas the whole situation is surrealist.Kernighanists are not great artistsNeither are Whitesmiths and Allmanists, that’s the gist.

I too like Guillaume Apollinaire.Hand crafted alignment falls in disrepair.Are you trying to win the IOCCC ?Your sole concern should be consistency.

There is no value in what is invisible.No semantic in what is not expressible.A line break or not, what’s the différanceFor Git, noisy inconvenient difference

Is indentation really communicative?Of what can emptiness be indicative?There is no point, your patch is not applicableNot comparable, not even shareable.

For the love or your project’s contributorsDon’t act like an art gallery curator.Clear rules should control the look of each linePut them in an enforceable guideline

It took a while, now we have modern tools.The have limitations and act like fools.For they have one goal, uniformity.Pick a style then use it consistently.

Your code won’t be magnificent and perfect.But it will be readable, it’s what I expect.Tool-able, Merge-able, Refactor-ableQualities that I find truly adorable.

Pick a style then use it consistently.Then concentrate on things that matter really.And so use a tool and accept its caveatsFor your productivity, use clang-format.