Is code formatting still too complicated

The formatting of code in the forum is easy and improves the readability. Newcomers in the forum seems to have problems to apply it, although the new layout has added further instructions. Do you have the impression that the number of unformatted code has increased or decreased?

How could new users instructed more efficiently to format code?

I know, this question is as old as the forum itself and has been asked multiple times already. But I still do not loose the hope that there are new ideas.

I do not think that badly formatted code is enough to flag a question to be deleted. What about offering 1 reputation point, if a new user is instructed personally to follow the forum standards? Or adding a standard comment like "Please format your..." triggered by a button?

[Albert Yam]

For my transition, it had a lot to do with figuring out that you need to put things not only on different lines but to also add another new line before AND after the code. I have caught myself just highlighting some code, hitting the {}Code button, and nothing happens in the Preview.

For some forum users, (perhaps such as yourself) this might be second nature, but for new users, the {}Code button might not seem to do anything.

Suggestion would be to add the new lines above and below the highlighted sections when hitting the {}Code button.

[Jan]

A good answer, thanks, Albert. Please post it in the answers section, not as comment, such that I can vote it. You see there are even more conventions besides the code formatting... ;-)

[per isakson]

Formatting, does that have something to do with markup ;-)

[Jan]

Almost, Per, it is more makeup.

Answer 1

[Albert Yam]

For my transition, it had a lot to do with figuring out that you need to put things not only on different lines but to also add another new line before AND after the code. I have caught myself just highlighting some code, hitting the {}Code button, and nothing happens in the Preview.

For some forum users, (perhaps such as yourself) this might be second nature, but for new users, the {}Code button might not seem to do anything.

Suggestion would be to add the new lines above and below the highlighted sections when hitting the {}Code button.

Edit: Started off not having a suggestion (answer to the question), so thought to just comment, but ended up with a suggestion after writing it. Yep, perpetual student of Matlab.

[Jan]

Even describing your experiences with the "{} Code" button is valuable already, thanks. It should be easy to add the empty lines automatically. Even a test for already existing blank lines is not required, because the number of empty lines does not matter.

Answer 2

[Ryan]

I would recommend implementing an "open code" and "close code" tag system similar to the other features in the comment section (,_ _,< >, etc). The idea of an opening and closing tag is something that most users should be comfortable with and it creates more uniformity in the formatting markup. I wouldn't be opposed to do it bb-style either: [code]LOTS OF FUN MATLAB THINGS![/code].

[Jan]

I like bb much more than the strange formatting in this forum. E.g. it is ugly, that the indentation of code is affected by an empty line.

We have the || as delimiter for code already. They work for blocks also, but not reliably.

[per isakson]

The markup here in Answer is a subset of "Markup for Publishing MATLAB Files", which I think is a good thing.

[Ryan]

I did not realize that. The uniformity is certainly a good thing but the annoyingness of the code mark-up should be fixed. For example...

Output from just hitting the {}Code button:

if true
  % code
end % Note the "if" and "end" are indented 2 spaces
% This line of code has no indentation
% This line has 1 space
% This line has 2 spaces
 % This line has 3 spaces!

New block of code:

 % This line has the 1 required space to initiate code but I cannot align this to the left hand side as above
% But now I can align the next line of code

[Jan]

Another example:

if x == 1    % 2 leading spaces
  disp(x);   % 4 leading spaces, empty line follows

    disp(1)    % 4 leading spaces
  end          % 2 leading spaces

Empty liens are helpful to separate blocks of code and to increase the readability. While Per is right with the formatting is based on "Markup for Publishing MATLAB Files", I think, that optical penalties for empty lines are a bad idea.