ghost
commented
2 years ago Prettier is one option, however it's opinionated, meaning it has its own set of rules by which your code will be formatted and you can't really change them.
Initially this struck me as a bad idea. I mean, we have a set of coding standards that we've developed (inherited), so we'd need an automated code formatter to abide by them, right? But then as I read the Why Prettier? page, I started coming around to the idea of using an opinionated formatter...
Here are the problems of our current system and how something like Prettier would fix that for us:
- Developers debate over how code should be formatted (yes, even after it's already been documented: https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/4824) - this is because we're human and we're unique, emotional beings.
- Prettier sets a standard for code formatting that's fully automated (no emotion or back-and-forth debates involved).
- Newcomers excited about getting their first PR merged can be disappointed with the review process when it comes to styling (e.g. the nit-picking about whitespace, line lengths, etc.) and lose motivation for further contributions as a result.
- Prettier automates the formatting of code, so this low-level reviewing of code is no longer needed (less work for reviewers and less frustration for contributors).
- Developers have different coding styles and levels of experience - different coding styles mean more fixing needed to bring it to consistency, and less experience may mean more hesitation in making PRs that publicly show your inexperience.
- Prettier makes all code look the same, so despite developers writing code differently, it all ends up being consistent, and developers who aren't as experienced feel better about their PRs since they're formatted the same as everyone else's.
- We maintain our own coding standards. These may need updating/changing over time and can be a cause of controversy for the community. They also need to be fully and definitively documented to be useful.
- Prettier does away with the need for our own coding standards. Our standards going forward would just be "the way Prettier does it, which happens automatically", so no need to separately document everything.
Like I said, I'm becoming more open to the idea of using an opinionated code formatter, but still open to a discussion about other, customisable formatters if people want to suggest any...
indigoxela
bugfolder
jenlampton
Description of the need
It'd be nice to add an automation (GitHub Action) that formats code nicely for us in PRs. This'd not only make sure code is easy-to-read and consistent, but would prevent the back-and-forth, nit-picky reviews where we ask contributors to add some whitespace here, fix this comment to not overflow 80 characters, etc.
Proposed solution
As discussed in https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/2785#issuecomment-1081646384, code linters seem to be moving away from 'stylistic' changes and just focusing on flagging/fixing bugs in code. In other words, a linter will warn you about a missing parentheses, but it won't flag whitespace or line-length issues.
This is where code formatters (or 'prettifiers') come in. I recommend we decide on which we'd like to use and then set it up as a GH action to run on PRs.
Alternatives that have been considered
We can always stick with our current system of having a documented coding style, and pointing contributors to that when we mark their PRs as 'needs work', but I don't think that's an ideal solution for reasons I'll get into below...
Draft of feature description for Press Release (1 paragraph at most)
Backdrop now automatically flags and/or fixes code formatting issues in pull requests for readability and consistency.
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