Crockford on Bootstrap's semicolon omission: “insanely stupid code”

Post by rtomayko » Sun, Apr 15, 2012, 5:31 AM UTC

fusiongyro wrote: post #37

ricardobeat wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure the "raising the skill level" bit is just trolling. Omitting semi-colons is about removing ambiguity, and making it easier to spot inconsistencies. As a bonus, code looks cleaner. In this case, the minifier is breaking the code, regardless.

Can you parse this expression without parentheses? a && b && c || d || e + f > g && h The parser sure can. Do you have all the operator precedences memorized, or do you use superfluous parentheses because you're not always sure? It's true that the semicolon is not needed, and it's true that the minifier is breaking code. It may even be true that Crockford should fix it. But that doesn't change the fact that the omit-…

Post by atdt » Sun, Apr 15, 2012, 5:33 AM UTC

Groxx wrote: post #12

felipe_csl wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the hell people are refusing to use semicolons? I don't get it

I've seen a few reasons. The main ones I encounter are: raising the skill requirement to contribute (you have to know JS better than average to never use a semicolon, and do so correctly), aesthetic (fewer characters looks better), and minimalism (don't use what you don't need).

Post by seandon » Sun, Apr 15, 2012, 5:44 AM UTC

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Apr 15, 2012, 5:49 AM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #43

gfodor wrote: post #33

There's something horribly wrong with everything about this. Why is such a smart person as Crockford wasting his time arguing about semicolons in 2012? Why is this at the top of the most popular hacker website? Why are people writing detailed opinions about semicolons in this thread (with surely more to come?) One would hope that at least over time the bike sheds being argued about would start to at least evolve into…

Whatever the next disruption is in software engineering, please dear God let it be immune-by-design to this type of distraction. While your sentiment is positive, wouldn't this mean either designing things in a rigid, unambiguous manner (think C's semicolons) or changing human nature? Ambiguous choices plus human nature equals debates. An argument about semicolons does seem silly and your proposed outcome sounds nice…

Post by thristian » Sun, Apr 15, 2012, 5:53 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #76

barrkel wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jacob ("fat") comes off looking far worse than Crockford, to my eyes (and that Kit character seems to be 7 years old). It's the arrogance and stupidity of youth facing the crotchety crankiness of experience. Crockford has earned the right to have a strong opinion here IMO. But it's not just bike-shedding. It's more pernicious than that. It's actually something that looks like bike-shedding to uninformed observers, bu…

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