Removing D embedded in HTML feature

[Jim Hewes]

"Christopher Wright" <dhasenan at gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:ft1mq1$1c68$1 at digitalmars.com...
>
> 1. No formatting in code. Syntax highlighting is fine, but that's an 
> end-user thing. Tabs versus spaces should be an end-user thing, too. (I 
> just dealt with a professor distributing SQL in Powerpoint. 32pt Comic 
> Sans. Ugh.)
>
> 2. Keep the code as portable as possible. UTF8 for the win. Not just 
> because the code has to travel between computers and operating systems, 
> but because people fight wars over editors.
>
> 3. It already takes me five minutes to check out a fresh copy of my 
> projects at work. If the files contained formatting data, they'd be a fair 
> bit larger, which would increase that time. That would be annoying.
>
> 4. UML is terrible. Don't bring it into source code.
>
> Now, if you wanted tables and such in comments, fine. I think they'd be 
> overused and annoying, but I can see the utility.

I take it you disagree with me. :-) Anyway, I'm not sure I was clear.

1. There would be no formatting in code that was fed to the compiler. 
Appearance of code is personal taste. I find it annoying to look at code 
where the opening braces always are on the right. But a lot of people do it. 
If you don't want to see code as comic sans serif, then set the preference 
in your editor to show all code in courier. If some programmer formatted a 
comment or a line of code in bold because he thought it was important and 
should stand out, and you don't want to see any bold, then set your editor 
to not show any bold.

2. I think it should be portable, too. I just don't think ASCII or UTF8 is 
the only thing that can ever be portable. Code is currently portable only 
because everyone has agreed on a standard called ASCII. You can't see source 
code on a disk with your eyes. You need a special tool called a text editor, 
whether it's vi, emacs, or Windows notepad. If everyone agreed on another 
type of standard file that could hold more than just ASCII, I don't see the 
conceptual difference. (Perhaps it would be PDF) In any case, you could 
always export just the code for the luddites. :-)

3.  But you still need to create and maintain documentation for your code 
right? Where is that kept? In a separate place than the code? You need to 
modify that? Do you keep revisions of that documentation that stays with the 
code?

4. I didn't suggest UML. I just want to add vector diagrams, drawings, 
flowcharts, links and other forms of visual documentation. I want to edit 
them and keep them together with the source. Sure I can use Doxygen to add 
@param and @returns in the source. But then when I look at the source, I see 
the ugly @param and @returns. If I want to see nice formatting, I need to go 
look at the HTML output which is whole separate thing. And then when I'm 
looking at the HTML output in the browser, I can't edit code there. Why can't 
it be together?

Jim