Source formatters -- not the "right" solution

[Eric S. Raymond]

In article <847 at unh.uucp>, jeff at unh.UUCP (Jeffrey E. F. Friedl) writes:
> What could be done is (oh boy, Yet Another Bright Idea): a questionnaire
> could be made addressing various points of style.  From responses, one
> could publish _Style_Today_, a book citing what _is_ used today.  Not why,
> or what should be used, but what _is_.  Then we could all see where we stand
> and go from there (or stay where we are -- whatever).

I'm sort of working towards this; see article <eWl9H#2cdgbS=eric at snark.UUCP>.
I'm trying to encourage a structured, value-neutral discussion of why people
make particular layout choices so we can build a sort of decision tree or
graph representing the space of possible layout rules. I want to do this
because I think a look at the next level up (the formation of the unconscious
metarules that steer you to a given spot on the graph) might yield really
interesting information about the 'microlevel' of how human beings do code.
-- 
      Eric S. Raymond                     (the mad mastermind of TMN-Netnews)
      Email: eric at snark.uu.net                       CompuServe: [72037,2306]
      Post: 22 S. Warren Avenue, Malvern, PA 19355      Phone: (215)-296-5718