Title:
A Warning Against Excessive Verbosity in Code Style
Author:
A concerned minimalist who believes in trusting operator precedence and the elegance of concise expression.
Abstract:
This proposal introduces a new compiler warning category:
-Wverbose-style, designed to gently steer developers toward
more confident, geek-approved syntax. It targets overly cautious constructs that, while technically correct, lack stylistic flair and betray a fear of trusting the language
Motivation
Modern C++ encourages clarity and safety. However, some developers take this too far, writing code that is syntactically valid but stylistically bloated. Examples include:
-
Redundant parentheses in logical expressions
-
Literal comparisons to true or
false
-
Over-commenting obvious constructs
-
Overly cautious initializations
This proposal aims to gently nudge developers toward more idiomatic and minimalist C++ — not by enforcing correctness, but by celebrating elegance.
2. Examples
✅ Preferred Geeklike Style:
/* clean, readable, confident */
if (a && b && c) { }
❌ Triggers
-Wverbose-style:
// warning: verbose-style detected. Consider trusting operator precedence.
if ((a && b) && (a && c))
// warning: verbose-style detected. Just write `if (flag)`
if (flag == true)
warning: verbose-style detected. Consider `std::string{}` or direct usage.
std::string s = "";
warning: verbose-style detected. Initialization could be more idiomatic.
int x = 0; // instead of `int x{};`
warning: verbose-style detected. Comment restates the obvious
if (x > 0) // Check if x is positive
i++; // Increment i
warning: verbose-style detected. Initialization could be more idiomatic. Consider direct usage
std::vector<int> v = std::vector<int>();
Implementation
This warning would be opt-in via compiler flag:
g++ -Wverbose-style