Expected `kotlin` to have a format command to form...

# kotlin-toolchain

[Edgar Avuzi]

Expected kotlin to have a format command to format Kotlin source code. Non-configurable format command to avoid bikeshedding.
Similar to gleam format which exists

[Edgar Avuzi]

So to avoid thinking of picking ktlint/ktfmt

[joffrey]

Say no more, this is planned 😊 JetBrains is taking over the development of ktfmt from Meta, and making some changes. When this work settles, we'll include this as a kotlin format command

[James]

Nice! I suppose it will also be integrated with Idea?

I wonder how different this is from ktlint from Pinterest.

[Emiel Bon]

My 2 cents, an anti-bikeshedding formatter needs to be either exceptionally good and much prefer readable structure/semantics over an 80-character limit, or should be applied to a language that is so inelegant that handing formatting over to a tool is almost always better than doing it by hand. The latter certainly doesn't apply to Kotlin

Last I tried it (some time ago), ktfmt still produced obviously less readable/elegant formatting than doing it by hand. An illustrative (not real) example:

// By hand
val handlers = mapOf(
    "create" to CreateHandler(repository, validator),
    "delete" to DeleteHandler(repository),
)

vs.

// kfmt
val handlers =
    mapOf(
        "create" to
            CreateHandler(repository, validator),
        "delete" to DeleteHandler(repository),
    )

It can be quite frustrating when you've designed an easy to read API / DSL and have the formatter ruin the structure.

Bikeshedding is of course very frustrating. Though if this formatter doesn't produce excellent results, I can also see that becoming a frustrating discussion between team members that get joy from creating readable code, and team members that get joy from delivering the next feature quickly. Ideally this formatter satisfies both.

[joffrey]

I totally feel you. Part of the work currently being done is exactly about improving this type of things. cc @vsevolod.tolstopyatov

[vsevolod.tolstopyatov]

yep, one of our decisions is not to follow the rectangle rule here!

[Emiel Bon]

That's really good to hear, very curious now to see what it'll be like 🙂