Jaa

Formatting code in blogs

  • Artikkeli

In a comment, Steve asks how I format code in my blog. Here's the answer:

  1. Write the code in Visual Studio. Include correct references, 'using' directives, helper classes, fields, etc. Make sure the code builds. (I really should use NUnit to make sure it works.) It's amazing how much sample code out there is plain broken. Not just in blogs, but even in expensive books.

  2. Because I'm using Whidbey, I get nice colorization of types. (You see them showing in Bold Navy.) I love this feature.

  3. Even though the blogging site I'm using lets me write in a WYSIWIG editor on a web page, I usually write the blog in Word. For some reason, it's really a pain to get good formatting in an HTML WYSIWIG editor. It inserts blank space where I don't want it, forgets my font settings, etc. When I paste in code, it loses indenting & font settings.

  4. I copy code from VS & paste it in Word. VS fills the clipboard with (at least) two formats: text and RTF. Word prefers the RTF, so its gets my formatting. I think that RTF pasting into the HTML editor is extra-broken.

  5. I select the pasted code & click the Outside Border toolbar button to draw a nice box around the code.

I also have a predefined style called “code” that I use when there’s a bit of code in the middle of a sentence. There’s a typesetting style where langue étrangère should be italicized. I’m doing the same thing by putting keywords & indentifiers in fixed width, I guess.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2004
    What's wrong with simply putting your code inside PRE and/or CODE tags? Then you don't end up with all those bizarre MS Office xml tags that take up so much space.
  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2004
    Robert: what smart tags are you talking about? I don't think I've seen them.
  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2004
    You may want to read Phil Ringnaldas comments on clean code.

    http://philringnalda.com/blog/2004/04/html_is_code.php
  • Anonymous
    April 28, 2004
    this page doesn't even validate...

    http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://blogs.msdn.com/jaybaz_ms/archive/2004/03/30/103505.aspx

    so you're code isn't that clean!
  • Anonymous
    April 29, 2004
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    October 13, 2004
    <p>
    <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2004/10/05/238427.aspx">Brad Abrams</a>,
    <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jaybaz_ms/archive/2004/03/30/103505.aspx">Jay Bazuzi</a>,
    <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2004/02/05/67957.aspx">Roy Osherove</a>,
    and what seems like the majority of .NET bloggers use Word, Word macros, or Visual Studio macros that use Word
    in some way to format their code. A few use
    <a href="http://www.manoli.net/">Jean-Claude Manoli</a>'s
    <a href="http://www.manoli.net/csharpformat/">CSharpFormat</a>
    tool. Each solution has drawbacks (opening Word, opening another browser window, copying and pasting, extra steps,
    terrible HTML, etc) and formatting code is still painful. So...
    </p>
    <p>
    I've written a simple Visual Studio add-in that allows you to copy source as HTML suitable for pasting into blogs...
    </p>
  • Anonymous
    October 19, 2004
    Brad Abrams, Jay Bazuzi, Roy Osherove, and what seems like the majority of .NET bloggers use Word, Word macros, or Visual Studio macros that use Word in some way to format their code. A few use Jean-Claude Manoli's CSharpFormat...
  • Anonymous
    November 24, 2004
    Peter Gray left a comment that I can reduce the a part of the spring example even further, from this:public long getNewPrimaryKey(String sequenceName) { JdbcTemplate jdbcTemp = new JdbcTemplate(dataSource); long seqKey = jdbcTemp.queryForLong("select "+sequenceName+".nextval from dual"); return seqKey; } to this:public long getNewPrimaryKey(String sequenceName) { OracleSequenceMaxValueIncrementer osmvi = new OracleSequenceMaxValueIncrementer(dataSource,sequenceName); return osmvi.nextLongValue(); } And you swap the constructor for a call to the bean factory to get an instance of the bean if you have it configured in your spring.xml...
  • Anonymous
    December 27, 2004
    Brad Abrams, Jay Bazuzi, Roy Osherove, and what seems like the majority of .NET bloggers use Word, Word macros, or Visual Studio macros that use Word in some way to format their code. A few use Jean-Claude Manoli's CSharpFormat...