[phobos] excessive vertical spacing?

[Brad Roberts]

On 1/27/2013 12:11 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> There's been sporadic discussion every now and then about recommended style etc. Time to add to it :o).
> 
> I've noticed excessive empty lines in a few Phobos modules. For example:
> 
>         @property SysTime timeLastModified()
>         {
>             _ensureStatDone();
> 
>             return SysTime(unixTimeToStdTime(_statBuf.st_mtime));
>         }
> 
> And so on for functions of 2-5 lines, and there's a bunch of them. It would be difficult to argue that the vertical
> space adds to clarity as the whole thing is just there.
> 
> Can we agree to be a bit more sparing with empty lines? If there's one resource that's not abundant to all of us, that
> must be vertical space.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Andrei

I actually prefer the blank line.  For me, blank lines separate logically separate parts of code.  If a set of lines
have no separating vertical white space it indicates that they're directly related.  In a two line example like this, it
matters a little less, but it does still matter.

If functions are so long that they can't be displayed as a whole, it's not the vertical white space that's at issue,
it's the amount of code as a whole.. time to split up.

I acknowledge that a lot of this boils down to style and screen and font sizes.  My typical editor session is about 120
cols, 80 rows, two side by side on a 24" monitor.  Occasionally another pair of those on the second monitor (though
that's usually browser + mail client).

So, no, I don't agree, but not passionately.

My 2 cents,
Brad