Talk:C (programming language)

I am requesting comments to move the opening bracket ('{') from a newline to the same line as the signature. My reasoning is to cite this:^[1] This is cited in the page "Hello, World!" program which provides a Hello, world program in C cited from the K&R book. If approved I will apply this change to both the original "Hello, world" program and the more modern version.

Please provide comments and thoughts. 24.50.56.74 (talk) 18:34, 20 October 2025 (UTC) 24.50.56.74 (talk) 18:34, 20 October 2025 (UTC)

I would not recommend a change. I have programmed in C for a very long time, and opening braces were always put at the same position as the closing braces. In all C (and C++ books later on) this is the way programs are represented. Don't change it because in one publication it is different. Take a look at "The C programming language" of K&R and you will see what I mean. — _D^an_d^orⁱ_D (talk) 10:24, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

Please see WP:RFCBEFORE. Where is the deadlocked dispute that has made a full-blown thirty-day formal RfC necessary? Aside from that, a C compiler simply does not care. Like most ALGOL-derived programming languages, you can write it all on one line, or each token on a separate line; you can have any number of leading spaces, tabs, both or neither; and it makes not one scrap of a difference. The only time that is does matter to the compiler is when you use preprocessor directives like #include <stdio.h> which must be followed by a newline. In short, this is valid:

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){printf("hello, world\n");}

and so is this:

#include <stdio.h>
int
main
(
void
)
{
printf
(
"hello, world\n"
)
;
}

When you write your own C programs, you can lay it out however you like. If you are at a university, they may teach you one way; another university might teach a different way. Neither of them is wrong. The only time that it "matters" is when you work for a company that has house style rules and you're sharing code with a programming team. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:30, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

Like Dandorid, I would not recommend a change either. For the function body, I've almost always seen the opening and closing braces on their own lines in actual C sources. Since this style is very common, we should follow it (at least, for existing examples in WP, we should not change it to some other, rarely used style). The K&R book is very old, and practice has evolved to ease readability. — Vincent Lefèvre (talk) 23:41, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

I don't have a strong opinion, but this image supports the stance from @Vincent Lefèvre and @Dandorid.

And per @Redrose64's comments, the RfC does indeed seem excessive. Chumpih ^t 06:41, 22 October 2025 (UTC)