Should you ever hand-format code?

06/12/2025 7 min Episodio 141
Should you ever hand-format code?

Listen "Should you ever hand-format code?"

Episode Synopsis


Ever feel like you're wasting your time tweaking a section of code to get it just right? We have tools for that, don't we?  In the latest episode of the No Compromises podcast, we discuss when to trust auto-formatters and when to nudge code by hand. Aaron makes the case that a few mindful minutes of “prettying up” can unblock harder thinking, without surrendering judgment to tools. We set limits on this approach, share a tiered break strategy, and make it clear why you still own what the formatter changes.(00:00) - Auto-formatters vs subjective style choices

(01:15) - Edge cases tools miss and human tweaks

(03:15) - Using light formatting to unlock hard problems

(05:15) - A tiered break strategy for focus

(07:00) - Silly bit
Want two Laravel experts to review your code?