Coding Guidelines: Finding the Art in the Science →
CONSIDER A PROGRAM AS A “TABLE”
“In a recent ACM Queue article Poul-Henning Kamp2 makes the fascinating point that much of the style of programming languages stems from the ASCII character set and typewriter-based terminals. Programming languages make no use of the graphical properties and options of modern devices. While code must be written with the clarity of good English grammar, it is not English text. Instead it is more like math and tables.
This is a far-reaching principle. First, it speaks directly to the use of fonts. Do not use a variable-width (proportional) font for program code, as code is not text. Fixed-width fonts (e.g., Courier and Data Gothic) look appealing and allow easy alignment of code. Proportional (variable-width) fonts prevent proper alignment, and even more importantly, do not “look like” code.
While one should continue to think of a program as a sequence of actions or as an algorithm at a high level, each section of code should also be thought of as a presentation of a chart, table, or menu. In figures 1, 2, and 3 notice the use of vertical alignment to show symmetry. This is a powerful method of communication.”
