This document is an edited version of Black's code style document.
TcBlack reformats entire files in place and creates a .bak file of the original one.
It is not configurable. It doesn't take previous formatting into account. It doesn't reformat
blocks that start with // fmt: off and end with // fmt: on #16.
TcBlack ignores previous formatting and applies uniform horizontal and vertical
whitespace to your code. The rules for horizontal whitespace can be summarized as: do
whatever makes pycodestyle happy. The coding style used by TcBlack can be viewed as a
strict subset of PEP 8/Black.
Furthermore, formatting is done in such a way to reduce potential diffs.
As for vertical whitespace, TcBlack tries to render one full expression or simple statement per line. If this fits the allotted line length, great.
// in:
j = DoSomething(var1:=1,
var2:=3,
var3=5
);
// out:
j = DoSomething(var1:=1, var2:=3, var3=5);
If not, TcBlack will look at the contents of the first outer matching brackets and put that in a separate indented line.
// in:
SomeImportantFunctionBlock.WithAMethod(And:='a', few:='other', variables:='to', worry:='about');
// out:
SomeImportantFunctionBlock.WithAMethod(
And:='a', few:='other', variables:='to', worry:='about'
);
If that still doesn't fit the bill, it will decompose the internal expression further using the same rule, indenting matching brackets every time. If the contents of the matching brackets pair are comma-separated like an argument list then TcBlack will first try to keep them on the same line with the matching brackets. If that doesn't work, it will put all of them in separate lines.
// in:
AnotherFunctionBlock(without:='a', method:=', ', which:='has', quite:='a', bit:='more', variables:='to', worry:='about');
// out:
AnotherFunctionBlock(
without:='a',
method:=', ',
which:='has',
quite:='a',
bit:='more',
variables:='to',
worry:='about',
);
You might have noticed that closing brackets are always dedented and that a trailing comma is always added (#18). Such formatting produces smaller diffs; when you add or remove an element, it's always just one line. Also, having the closing bracket dedented provides a clear delimiter between two distinct sections of the code that otherwise share the same indentation level (like the arguments list in the example above).
You probably noticed the peculiar default line length. TcBlack defaults to 88 characters per line, which happens to be 10% over Python's popular 80. This number was found to produce significantly shorter files than sticking with 80 (the most popular), or even 79 (used by the standard library). In general, 90-ish seems like the wise choice.
If you're paid by the line of code you write, you can pass --line-length
#17 with a lower
number. TcBlack will try to respect that. However, sometimes it won't be able to without
breaking other rules. In those rare cases, auto-formatted code will exceed your allotted
limit.
You can also increase it, but remember that people with sight disabilities find it harder to work with line lengths exceeding 100 characters. It also adversely affects side-by-side diff review on typical screen resolutions. Long lines also make it harder to present code neatly in documentation or talk slides.
TcBlack avoids spurious vertical whitespace. This is in the spirit of PEP 8 which says that in-function vertical whitespace should only be used sparingly.
TcBlack will allow single empty lines inside functions, except when they're within parenthesized expressions. Since such expressions are always reformatted to fit minimal space, this whitespace is lost.
Finally TcBlack will add a single whiteline to a function or function block definition and
implementation. This is to prevent unessesarry diffs in the raw TcPOU xml file, especially in the
implementation part. Since the declaration part will usually end with a END_VAR anyway, but
for consistency the declaration part will also get a trailing white space.
Take the following diffs where an extra statement gets added, but this version doesn't have a trailing white line:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TcPlcObject Version="1.1.0.1" ProductVersion="3.1.4024.3">
<POU Name="FB_Child" Id="{0e65befd-f733-4035-9cb9-b4c563001612}" SpecialFunc="None">
...
<Implementation>
<ST><![CDATA[SomeText := 'Current counts';
...
-Counts := Counts + 1;]]></ST>
+Counts := Counts + 1;
+ExtraCounts := ExtraCounts + 1;]]></ST>
</Implementation>
</POU>
</TcPlcObject>and this one does.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TcPlcObject Version="1.1.0.1" ProductVersion="3.1.4024.3">
<POU Name="FB_Child" Id="{0e65befd-f733-4035-9cb9-b4c563001612}" SpecialFunc="None">
...
<Implementation>
<ST><![CDATA[SomeText := 'Current counts';
...
Counts := Counts + 1;
+ExtraCounts := ExtraCounts + 1;
]]></ST>
</Implementation>
</POU>
</TcPlcObject>Trailing commas (Milestone 0.5+, #18)
TcBlack will add trailing commas to expressions that are split by comma where each element is on its own line.
Unnecessary trailing commas are removed if an expression fits in one line. This makes it 1% more likely that your line won't exceed the allotted line length limit. Moreover, in this scenario, if you added another argument to your call, you'd probably fit it in the same line anyway. That doesn't make diffs any larger.
TcBlack will break a line before a binary operator when splitting a block of code over multiple lines. This is so that TcBlack is compliant with the recent changes in the PEP 8 style guide, which emphasizes that this approach improves readability.
So instead of
// Wrong:
// operators sit far away from their operands
income := (
gross_wages +
taxable_interest +
(dividends - qualified_dividends) -
ira_deduction -
student_loan_interest
);
do
// Correct:
// easy to match operators with operands
income := (
gross_wages
+ taxable_interest
+ (dividends - qualified_dividends)
- ira_deduction
- student_loan_interest
);
Some parentheses are optional in the IEC structured text grammar. Any expression can be wrapped in a pair of parentheses to form an atom. There are a few interesting cases:
IF (...) THENWHILE (...) DOFOR (...) TO (...) DO
In those cases, parentheses are removed when the entire statement fits in one line, or if the inner expression doesn't have any delimiters to further split on. If there is only a single delimiter and the expression starts or ends with a bracket, the parenthesis can also be successfully omitted since the existing bracket pair will organize the expression neatly anyway. Otherwise, the parentheses are added.
Please note that TcBlack does not add or remove any additional nested parentheses that you might want to have for clarity or further code organization. For example those parentheses are not going to be removed:
MethodName := NOT (this OR that);
decision := (maybe.this() AND values > 0) OR (maybe.that() AND values < 0);
Some APIs use call chaining. This API style is known as a fluent interface. TcBlack formats those by treating dots that follow a call or an indexing operation like a very low priority delimiter. It's easier to show the behavior than to explain it. Look at the example:
result := (
session.query(models.Customer.id)
.filter(
models.Customer.account_id = account_id,
models.Customer.email = email_address,
)
.order_by(models.Customer.id.asc())
.all()
);
TcBlack in general does not take existing formatting into account.
However, there are cases where you put a short collection or function call in your code but you anticipate it will grow in the future.
For example:
Thermocouples : ARRAY[1..2] OF FB_Tc = [
(Pos:='4 Left'),
(Pos:='5 Below'),
];
In principle this statement fits on a single 88 character line. However, you can communicate that you don't want to format it, by putting a trailing comma in the collection yourself. When you do, TcBlack will know to always explode your collection into one item per line.
How do you make it stop? Just delete that trailing comma and TcBlack will collapse your collection into one line if it fits.