A brace vs. indentation hypothesis

[T. William Wells]

Ok, the results are in. From my original message:

: Here's a hypothesis: there is a relationship between peoples'
: preference for brace placement and the amount of space they use for
: indentation. My belief is that the narrower the indentation, the
: greater the perceived need to make braces visible; the wider the
: indentation, the greater the desire to get those pesky things out of
: the way.
:
: So, let's have a poll:
:
: 1) The number of spaces I indent is:        ___  [columns]
: 2) The braces are important for following
:    the control structure or setting it off: ___  [yes/no]

Here is the raw data:

spaces          important
3               4 no
4               4 no 1 probably 7 yes
5                    1 probably
8               1 no 2 probably 2 yes

The probably's are from people who weren't explicit about their
answer but whose message suggests that they believe the braces to be
important.  Marking "probably" as "yes", here is the data:

P(no) = 41%, P(yes) = 59%

spaces          important
3               4 no 0 yes      100% no   0% yes
4               4 no 8 yes       33% no  66% yes
5               0 no 1 yes        0% no 100% yes
8               1 no 4 yes       20% no  80% yes

Combining the 3,4,5 lines:

spaces          important
3,4,5           8 no 9 yes       47% no  53% yes
8               1 no 4 yes       20% no  80% yes

To summarize the data in English: people who use the shorter
indentations are about evenly split on the issue of the importance of
the braces. People who use a full tab stop, by and large, believe
that the braces are important.  (I was the only exception.)

In other words: there may be a relationship but, if so, it is exactly
opposite from my belief.

(Glug. Glug.) One more belief down the drain. (Gurgle.)

---
Bill
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