[llvm-dev] [docs][RFC] Style for "end namespace" comments

[Keane, Erich via llvm-dev]

From my reading of the coding-standard (AND your patch!) I don’t see where it even requires either form, other than ‘thou shall run clang-format’.  Use in not-particularly-related examples doesn’t have a ‘shall’ relationship for me at all.  For example, nothing in that Use Namespace Qualifiers… should convince you to use functions starting with ‘lower case’ (as in ‘foo’).

IMO, I think if we want to say anything, it should be that we want to have end-of-namespace curleys marked, either as // namespace llvm (or just // namespace?)  or // end namespace llvm (or //end anonymous namespace)

From: llvm-dev <llvm-dev-bounces at lists.llvm.org> On Behalf Of Carlos Galvez via llvm-dev
Sent: Monday, December 6, 2021 11:16 AM
To: llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
Subject: [llvm-dev] [docs][RFC] Style for "end namespace" comments

Hi,

I was recently working on a patch and was asked during review to replace existing:
"// end namespace clang"   Style A
with :
"// namespace clang"          Style B

After that, I got interested to understand what the preferred style is, and found in the Coding Guidelines<https://llvm.org/docs/CodingStandards.html#use-namespace-qualifiers-to-implement-previously-declared-functions> that the style is actually Style A.

On the other hand, clang-format will automatically enforce Style B on new code, via the FixNamespaceComments option, which is set to "true" for the LLVM style. clang-format will keep the Style A if it already exists, however. Most people using clang-format (outside LLVM) will probably be more familiar with Style B.

Additionally, I have seen the following usage numbers in the repo:

$ git grep '// end' | wc -l
6724
$ git grep '// namespace' | wc -l
14348

So Style B seems to be more adopted. Therefore I wanted to ask - should we update the Coding Guidelines to reflect this, and avoid these kinds of style discussions in code reviews? If so, what style should be preferred? I have a patch<https://reviews.llvm.org/D115115> for review and there seems to be a preference for keeping both styles. Regardless of the choice, I don't think this should lead to an urgent style change of the whole codebase.

Looking forward to your feedback!

Best regards,
Carlos
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