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    So true. Life is too short for manually formatting code. More cost efficient to let automation do it. Commented May 29, 2024 at 17:10
  • Yes yes, but remember, someone has to write those tools. Commented May 31, 2024 at 11:17
  • It's not true that styles are equivalent, even if you have enforcement. Vertically coupled alignment leads to larger commit diffs, more merge conflicts, poor use of space and inconsistent source code density. Also, a nit: you want automatic application of a style, not just enforcement (e.g. commit blocking or merge blocking) which is a huge inconvenience. Commented Nov 7, 2024 at 17:42
  • @DaveAbrahams I'd rather have a codebase that was consistent, and a tool dealing with it, than have the "perfect" style as applied by each dev. Once you have a tool enforcing it, it's really easy to have buy-in for a tool applying it. Different people will have different preferences as to when that tool runs Commented Nov 8, 2024 at 9:16
  • @Caleth I have no argument with that. I'm not saying which style you choose is more important than enforcement (although I maintain that mere enforcement is much worse than automatic application, and might even be worse than no enforcement). I'm simply addressing the idea that what style you choose doesn't matter at all. There are objective factors that make vertically coupled alignment worse than other choices. Commented Nov 10, 2024 at 16:45