Code Formatting Standard

[jhalpern30]

We should implement some kind of code formatting standard that must be adhered to with each new commit. As an example, for contributing to simsopt, part of the development process outlined on their documentation involves running autopep on the source code (https://simsopt.readthedocs.io/latest/contributing.html#code-development-workflow).

It looks like there is an existing Julia package that can do this (https://domluna.github.io/JuliaFormatter.jl/stable/) - being as simple as running

julia> using JuliaFormatter
julia> format(".")

in the top level directory.

Should we include this/some other formatting method as part of the development steps? If so, we'll have to decide on the formatting options to stick to.

Another possibility is adding it to the tests during a PR run (i.e. if the formatter detects changes in files, the run fails), but I am unsure how to do this.

[jhalpern30]

This was inspired by seeing @bclyons12 fixing this (I think) manually in a commit, would be nice to automate

[bclyons12]

@orso82 would have some insights too as I think he's worked with some of these tools. He may need access to this repo.

[logan-nc]

OMFIT has git hooks that automate formatting enforcement. Do @orso82 or @bclyons12 have examples of how to do that in Julia?

[matt-pharr]

@jhalpern30 @bclyons12 were you all thinking something similar to how black runs every time you make an OMFIT commit?

[orso82]

For FUSE-related repos we use a JuliaFormatter.toml like this: https://github.com/ProjectTorreyPines/FUSE.jl/blob/master/.JuliaFormatter.toml
and that's been sufficient for what we do.

Then I typically trigger format files using the VScode Julia integration

and the folderformatter VScode extension

So far we have stayed away from automated format enforcement since I find it annoying more than anything... but to each their own.

If you want to do automatic formatting enforcement you can take a look at the https://github.com/ProjectTorreyPines/GitHubActionsWorkflows/blob/master/.github/workflows/format_check.yml github action reusable workflow under the https://github.com/ProjectTorreyPines/GitHubActionsWorkflows repo

[logan-nc]

I like it. @jhalpern30 can you create a fearture branch from master, add the .JuliaFormatter.toml file, add some documentation saying all developers should regularly apply it (I guess in the readme for now? or make another markdown for developer notes and reference it in the readme?). We can all just try and be sure PR's include a formatting clean up commit before merging.

[jhalpern30]

Sounds good, I'll do that today

[bclyons12]

Completed with #40