automated coding style tool

[Maciej W. Rozycki]

On Sat, 18 Jan 2025, Tom Tromey wrote:

> Maciej>  We have a coding style tool onboard our GNU Project already, it's called 
> Maciej> GNU indent and I think it would be consistent with our project to improve 
> Maciej> the tool we already have rather than seeking alternatives outside.
> 
> That would be good but I think GNU indent is mostly unmaintained.
> The last time I looked at it, it didn't know very much about C++ at all.

 The most recent release was made in 2023 and the previous one -- back in 
2018.  Not too bad per GNU Project's standards, so I wouldn't consider the 
program unmaintained, but rather that not much development has happened in 
the recent years because, unsurprisingly, support for C has been pretty 
much complete.

 I realise it has no C++ support, but as software engineers and then also 
contributors to the GNU Project we are in the best position to change it. 
So I think that if there's a tool out there that either already fulfils 
our needs or almost does and could be brought to completion very easily, 
then it will make sense to invest our resources in it, but otherwise we 
should really consider improving GNU indent instead.

 FWIW,

  Maciej