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Re:Facebook Open Sources flint, a C++ linter written in D by mbell on Monday February 24, 2014 @05:03PM (#7293724)
I'm not really following you. It's very common for linters to flag stylistic and formatting issues.
Re:Facebook Open Sources flint, a C++ linter written in D by sliverstorm on Monday February 24, 2014 @05:05PM (#7293736)
Ah well, perhaps it's just a difference in experience. I've never used a linter (there are countless linters) that fixed indentation, arranged if statements, and inserted newlines to wrap long lines. Nor has a formatter ever helped me find the sort of issues I use a linter to find.
Re:Facebook Open Sources flint, a C++ linter written in D by maw on Monday February 24, 2014 @09:30PM (#7294928)
There is overlap. I once lost a fair amount of time because some dimwit predecessor thought putting anything other than a space after commas was acceptable. (It sounds ridiculous but it's true. I can explain if you care.)

So: a formatter will, for example, make sure your lines are indented to some standard amount of indentation, a linter will bitch if they are not, and both the formatter and the linter should DTRT when they identify certain indefensible coding practices.

Re:Facebook Open Sources flint, a C++ linter written in D by he_the_great on Tuesday February 25, 2014 @03:16PM (#7300157)
I wouldn't want to reach for lint to handle formatting, that is what indent is for. That is to say, lint should not complain that the if should contain a space before the (.
Re:Facebook Open Sources flint, a C++ linter written in D by maw on Thursday February 27, 2014 @05:41PM (#7315770)
I agree in that case, but when it comes to commas, using spaces in a certain way is objectively better.