Return to Answer

It’s an awful idea.

If one of my developer colleagues made gratuitous changes to source files, it wouldn’t pass a code review. It just makes life harder for everyone. Change the code that needs changing, nothing else. Pointless changes lead to merge conflicts, which can lead to errors, and just create pointless work.

If you want to do this on a regular basis, that’s just awful.

And then there is the question of what kind of changes the code formatter makes. I use automatic formatting in my editor, it works reasonably well, and I can improve things when the automatic formatting is less than perfect. If you use a code formatter that goes beyond that, you are not going to improve the code, you are going to make it worse.

And then there is the social problem. There are people who want to force everyone to use their code style, and there are more flexible people. Something like this would likely be suggested by the "grammar-nazi" type of developer who want to force their style on everyone else. Expect a backlash, and expect the flexible, normally easy-going developers to put their foot down.

It’s an awful idea.

If one of my developer colleagues made gratuitous changes to source files, it wouldn’t pass a code review. It just makes life harder for everyone. Change the code that needs changing, nothing else. Pointless changes lead to merge conflicts, which can lead to errors, and just create pointless work.

If you want to do this on a regular basis, that’s just awful.

And then there is the question of what kind of changes the code formatter makes. I use automatic formatting in my editor, it works reasonably well, and I can improve things when the automatic formatting is less than perfect. If you use a code formatter that goes beyond that, you are not going to improve the code, you are going to make it worse.

And then there is the social problem. There are people who want to force everyone to use their code style, and there are more flexible people. Something like this would likely be suggested by the "grammer-nazi" (spelling intentional) type of developer who want to force their style on everyone else. Expect a backlash, and expect the flexible, normally easy-going developers to put their foot down.

It's an awful idea.

If one of my developer colleagues made gratuitous changes to source files, it wouldn't pass a code review. It just makes life harder for everyone. Change the code that needs changing, nothing else. Pointless changes lead to merge conflicts, which can lead to errors, and just create pointless work.

If you want to do this on a regular basis, that's just awful.

And then there is the question what changes the code formatter does. I use automatic formatting in my editor, it works reasonably well, and I can improve things when the automatic formatting is less than perfect. If you use a code formatter that goes beyond that, you are not going to improve the code, you are going to make it worse.

And then there is the social problem. There are people who want to force everyone to use their code style, and there are more flexible people. Something like this would likely be suggested by the "grammer-nazi" type of developer who want to force their style on everyone else. Expect a backlash, and expect the flexible, normally easy-going developers to put their foot down.

It’s an awful idea.

If one of my developer colleagues made gratuitous changes to source files, it wouldn’t pass a code review. It just makes life harder for everyone. Change the code that needs changing, nothing else. Pointless changes lead to merge conflicts, which can lead to errors, and just create pointless work.

If you want to do this on a regular basis, that’s just awful.

And then there is the question of what kind of changes the code formatter makes. I use automatic formatting in my editor, it works reasonably well, and I can improve things when the automatic formatting is less than perfect. If you use a code formatter that goes beyond that, you are not going to improve the code, you are going to make it worse.

And then there is the social problem. There are people who want to force everyone to use their code style, and there are more flexible people. Something like this would likely be suggested by the "grammar-nazi" type of developer who want to force their style on everyone else. Expect a backlash, and expect the flexible, normally easy-going developers to put their foot down.

It's an awful idea.

If one of my developer colleagues made gratuitous changes to source files, it wouldn't pass a code review. It just makes life harder for everyone. Change the code that needs changing, nothing else. Pointless changes lead to merge conflicts, which can lead to errors, and just create pointless work.

If you want to do this on a regular basis, that's just awful.

And then there is the question what changes the code formatter does. I use automatic formatting in my editor, it works reasonably well, and I can improve things when the automatic formatting is less than perfect. If you use a code formatter that goes beyond that, you are not going to improve the code, you are going to make it worse.

It's an awful idea.

If one of my developer colleagues made gratuitous changes to source files, it wouldn't pass a code review. It just makes life harder for everyone. Change the code that needs changing, nothing else. Pointless changes lead to merge conflicts, which can lead to errors, and just create pointless work.

If you want to do this on a regular basis, that's just awful.

And then there is the question what changes the code formatter does. I use automatic formatting in my editor, it works reasonably well, and I can improve things when the automatic formatting is less than perfect. If you use a code formatter that goes beyond that, you are not going to improve the code, you are going to make it worse.

And then there is the social problem. There are people who want to force everyone to use their code style, and there are more flexible people. Something like this would likely be suggested by the "grammer-nazi" type of developer who want to force their style on everyone else. Expect a backlash, and expect the flexible, normally easy-going developers to put their foot down.