GOOD FORMATTING STYLE

GOOD FORMATTING STYLE

Example program ------> GOODFORM.C

Load the file GOODFORM.C and observe it on your monitor. It is an example of a well formatted

program. Even though it is very short and therefore does very little, it is very easy to see at a glance what it does. With the experience you have already gained in this tutorial, you should be able to very quickly grasp the meaning of the program in it's entirety. Your C compiler ignores all extra spaces and all carriage returns giving you considerable freedom in formatting your program. Indenting and adding spaces is entirely up to you and is a matter of personal taste. Compile and run the program to see if it does what you expect it to do.

Example program ------> UGLYFORM.C

Now load and display the program UGLYFORM.C and observe it. How long will it take you to figure out what this program will do? It doesn't matter to the compiler which format style you use, but it will matter to you when you try to debug your program. Compile this program and run it. You may be surprised to find that it is the same program as the last one, except for the formatting. Don't get too worried about formatting style yet. You will have plenty of time to develop a style of your own as you learn the C language. Be observant of styles as you see C programs in magazines and books. This covers some of the basic concepts of programming in C, but as there are many other things to learn, we will forge ahead to additional program structure. It will definitely be to your advantage to do the programming exercises at the end of each chapter. They are designed to augment your studies and teach you to use your compiler.