Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2023 11:42:33 -0500
From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
To: Jelte Fennema <postgres@jeltef.nl>
Cc: Magnus Hagander <magnus@hagander.net>,
	Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@2ndquadrant.com>,
	Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net>, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>,
	Noah Misch <noah@leadboat.com>, Jesse Zhang <sbjesse@gmail.com>,
	Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>,
	PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: run pgindent on a regular basis / scripted manner
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On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 10:43:50AM +0100, Jelte Fennema wrote:
> Side-question: What's the reason why pgindent is used instead of some
> more "modern" code formatter that doesn't require keeping
> typedefs.list up to date for good looking output? (e.g. uncrustify or
> clang-format) Because that would also allow for easy editor
> integration.

Good question.  Our last big pgindent dicussion was in 2017, where I
said:

	https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/20170612213525.GA4074%40momjian.us#a96eac96c147ebcc1de86fe2356a160d
	
	Understood.  You would think that with the number of open-source
	programs written in C that there would be more interest in C formatting
	tools.  Is the Postgres community the only ones with specific
	requirements, or is it just that we settled on an older tool and can't
	easily change?  I have reviewed the C formatting options a few times
	over the years and every time the other options were worse than what we
	had.

We also discussed it in 2011, and this email was key for me:

	https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/201106220218.p5M2InB08144%40momjian.us#096cbcf02cb58c7d6c49bc79d2c79317
	
	I am excited Andrew has done this.  It has been on my TODO list for a
	while --- I was hoping someday we could switch to GNU indent but gave up
	after the GNU indent report from Greg Stark that exactly matched my
	experience years ago:
	
		http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2011-04/msg01436.php
	
	Basically, GNU indent has new bugs, but bugs that are harder to work
	around than the BSD indent bugs.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        https://momjian.us
  EDB                                      https://enterprisedb.com

Embrace your flaws.  They make you human, rather than perfect,
which you will never be.