[Ankintol]

I'd be curious to see experiments with variable numbers of line breaks to create additional structure. I find my own code significantly more readable by separating certain "sub-blocks" of code with two line breaks, with their internal structures having single line breaks.

  thing_1_a
  thing_1_b

  thing_1_c

  
  thing_2_a
  thing_2_b

It fits into the framework proposed here but is not mentioned specifically as having been investigated.

[twic]

In some long functions (really only very long app-setup functions), i break up related bits into blocks:

  {
    thing_1_a
    thing_1_b
    
    thing_1_c
  }
  
  {
    thing_2_a
    thing_2_b
  }

Blocks are are a language feature in a few languages, but are barely ever used, so it is rather weird to write and read at first.

[danlugo92]

Note to onlookers: blocks can soemtimes act weird in javascript. I loved using them but alas.

[qayxc]

Not just in Javascript. Since blocks define a scope, visibility and unexpected lifetime issues may occur in other curly-braces languages like C and C++ just as well.

Using blocks like that is something you should be very careful about - might have some surprising effects especially for novice programmers.

[twic]

The blocks here act exactly the same as any other blocks, like the ones you write for loops and ifs etc. So i wouldn't exactly call the consequences "unexpected".

[danlugo92]

I can't recall right now but I remember having errors that would not happen inside a normal for loop block. And I was using let/const not var.

[viklove]

The problem is, to most people it just looks like you made a mistake. If you want to create breaks in your code, consider adding comments or breaking blocks out into their own functions.

[Ankintol]

Does it look like I made a mistake to most people? I've never received a comment in a PR about it and I observe other developers using the same technique, so I'm surprised to hear this, do you feel very confident in this assessment? Just trying to gather feedback here.

[Leherenn]

Maybe not a mistake, but code smell, often, yes. If you add blocks, it's usually because you want to group things together, and avoid scope leakage (if that's an issue, then you're probably doing similar things multiple times). Often a function will be a better fit here.