indent style

indent style n.  [C programmers] The rules one uses to
   indent code in a readable fashion.  There are four major C indent
   styles, described below; all have the aim of making it easier for
   the reader to visually track the scope of control constructs.  The
   significant variable is the placement of `{' and `}'
   with respect to the statement(s) they enclose and to the guard or
   controlling statement (`if', `else', `for',
   `while', or `do') on the block, if any.

   `K&R style' -- Named after Kernighan & Ritchie, because the
   examples in {K&R} are formatted this way.  Also called `kernel
   style' because the UNIX kernel is written in it, and the `One True
   Brace Style' (abbrev. 1TBS) by its partisans.  The basic indent
   shown here is eight spaces (or one tab) per level; four spaces are
   occasionally seen, but are much less common.

     if (cond) {
             <body>
     }

   `Allman style' -- Named for Eric Allman, a Berkeley hacker who
   wrote a lot of the BSD utilities in it (it is sometimes called
   `BSD style').  Resembles normal indent style in Pascal and
   Algol.  Basic indent per level shown here is eight spaces, but four
   spaces are just as common (esp. in C++ code).

     if (cond)
     {
             <body>
     }

   `Whitesmiths style' -- popularized by the examples that came
   with Whitesmiths C, an early commercial C compiler.  Basic indent
   per level shown here is eight spaces, but four spaces are
   occasionally seen.

     if (cond)
             {
             <body>
             }

   `GNU style' -- Used throughout GNU EMACS and the Free Software
   Foundation code, and just about nowhere else.  Indents are always
   four spaces per level, with `{' and `}' halfway between the
   outer and inner indent levels.

     if (cond)
       {
         <body>
       }

   Surveys have shown the Allman and Whitesmiths styles to be the most
   common, with about equal mind shares.  K&R/1TBS used to be nearly
   universal, but is now much less common (the opening brace tends to
   get lost against the right paren of the guard part in an `if'
   or `while', which is a {Bad Thing}).  Defenders of 1TBS
   argue that any putative gain in readability is less important than
   their style's relative economy with vertical space, which enables
   one to see more code on one's screen at once.  Doubtless these
   issues will continue to be the subject of {holy wars}.
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