The Point of Formatters

Stats -> The average person can read this 222 word page in 1 minute.

Concerns

The valid points I heard were something like:

• Could reduce productivity of the top coders.
• Removes the customization you can have when writing code

And if you agree with these points, then I suggest to not use a formatter. At the end of the day, formatters are supposed to be a tool to help you achieve what you want.

Solution

When you create a tool, you want your tool to be the most useful to the greatest number of people. Formatters are just a tool. Here’s why you would want to use a formatter:

• Consistency: There’s no need to adjust where to look for something when jumping from project to project, file to file, or line to line.
• Faster code creation: If wanted, you could write code without any spacing or formatting, and skip those keystrokes and let an auto-formatter apply your preferred changes.
• Guidance: It’s perfect for newbies and polyglots who want others looking at their code, it’s formatted “correctly” for that use case every time.

As always, hope someone found this helpful. Tchau.