Style and form in generated code

[User 11783308]

I do the opposite when I generate code. When emitting code, I automatically indent (really, fairly trivial) and even emit occasional comments. The reason is very simple -- I do not do so, so that users can maintain or modify the code, I do it so that I can maintain and modify the code generator. Just like any other code you write, code that you write automatically may need to be corrected for errors, large and small. Just because you do not directly maintain the generated code, does not mean that the code generator does not need to be maintained. Clean, formatted generated code helps substantially with that. And, if one or eleven years, your code generator is not still in use (or possibly not even available), but the generated code is still running. Then it DOES need to be maintained directly. Bottom line, treat generated code exactly like any other code that you write. BTW, GOTO statements are fine regardless -- just use them to replacing missing control structures. Every language has them, including C and C++. For example, break and continue only apply to the inner level. I quite frequently need to break from two or (more rarely) three levels. Using a GOTO is the only choice, when the language is insufficient.

[honey the codewitch]

I hear you, and to a degree I agree. I do format my code, and I don't go out of my way to make the generated code cryptic, but I do concentrate on maintaining the generator. If it generates code that needs to be tweaked, then it's the generator that needs to be tweaked, IMO. I'm running into that right now with a lexer generator I made that I'm using as a pre-build step in another project. I fixed the lexer generator. =)

When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.