Take a position on indentation of private/protected/public

[burke]

eg:

class Foo
  def bar  
  end
private # this 
  def baz
  end
  protected # versus this
  def quux
  end
end

I'm not sure which is the most widely-used. I know Rails uses the former, but I don't have a strong opinion. I feel like a style guide that suggests using private where applicable should also dictate how to indent it.

[bbatsov]

I've generally favoured the latter style (it's the one used in TRPL book and in the ruby-mode authored by Matz), but I'm not quite fond of it, so I've decided to merge the Rails style indentation you've suggested. We'll see how the community would react - I personally think that on some level it improves the readability of the code.

[mitio]

I've seen and use the latter style of indenting access modifiers (with the appropriate blank lines around the modifier).

However, AFAIK Rails uses a modification of the first version and also the second version (again showing lack of consistency). They use the "first" version in modules and the "second" one in classes, but I can't say that this is consistent and I also don't like it. This is the modification of the first version it uses:

class SomeClass
  def public_method
  end

  private

    def private_methods
    end
end

I haven't seen @burke's first option used in Rails.

Again, I would vote for the indented access modifier, i.e. the latter version.

[burke]

Yeah, I definitely want to avoid deferring to Rails here. This is one part of the project's coding style that absolutely baffles me.

This is a good article discussing the options http://fabiokung.com/2010/04/05/ruby-indentation-for-access-modifiers-and-their-sections/

I can get behind either style 2 or style 3 (The ones in my earlier comment). I don't think 1 and 4 should be considered, nor should Rails' style.

I just skimmed my gems directory (sans rails) and found a pretty even split between 2 and 3.

Maybe it would be a good idea to model after ARel's style here? https://gist.github.com/1227301

[burke]

Aaron is a pretty inconsistent with his spacing around access modifiers, but I would write that out as something along the lines of:

• Do not indent access modifiers (public/private/protected).
• Leave a blank line above and below access modifiers, except where the modifier appears at the top of a class context. In this case, omit the blank line above.

[examples]

[mitio]

+1 for "style 2" (no identation, ARel style, etc :)

[DAddYE]

In padrino we use this:

class SomeClass
  def public_method
  end

  private

    def private_methods
    end
end

[burke]

I get the appeal of the rails/padrino style, but to me it feels even more wrong than out-denting the access modifiers, since it implies a scope has been opened. It makes it very difficult to trace a method back up to its enclosing context, since there are now either 2 or 4 spaces of indentation between the class line and the def line. This gets to be a real challenge in files like active_record/base.rb (not to imply that a 2200-line file isn't a code smell in and of itself).

After thinking about this some more, I think I'm going to have to re-cast my vote for style 2. It may not stand out as much, but it is semantically much more consistent and clear.

EDIT: It also does have the benefit of being more widely-published.

[DAddYE]

Im pretty open to this, I tried all 3 versions and I can't say what is better, I prefer the 3° way only for esthetic reason, btw yep, you are right.