[webkit-dev] Should we ever change style guidelines? (was Re: Resolution on switch statement indentation)

[Chris Jerdonek]

At first glance these "meta-guidelines" seem fine.  If they are going
to be written down somewhere, a couple minor comments:

On Dec 9, 2009, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:

> I think something like
> the following should be our "meta-guidelines" for when to change the
> style guide:

It would be good to clarify that these are meta-guidelines for
changing the substance of the guide rather than the guide itself.  The
reason is that the guide can also change in non-substantive ways
(presentation, wording, examples, etc), and I don't think you mean for
your points to cover those as well.

> 3) If we have overwhelmingly strong evidence that a particular change
> would aid readability, even though the issue in question had been
> considered before, then we can consider changing. But there should be

I would use more general language here like, "If we have
overwhelmingly strong evidence that a particular change would result
in a net improvement..."  The reason is that, as has been pointed out,
not all of the guidelines have to do with readability.  For example,
some of the "using" statement guidelines have more to do with
building.  Maintainability is another consideration that does not
necessarily parallel readability, e.g.:

https://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-dev/2009-December/010862.html

--Chris