Interest in overhauling the IDE user interface?

Development Suggestions for the Arduino Project
45

If you are referring to this

if ( cost > 2x )
      digitalWrite ( ledPin, HIGH );

Then no, braces are not required. They are however highly recommended as leaving them out can lead to subtle bugs later. For example you add a line of code.

if ( cost > 2x )
      x++;
      digitalWrite ( ledPin, HIGH );

Now of course, despite the indenting, digitalWrite() gets called regardless of the "if" result. This can be difficult to spot because your brain "reads the indenting" and skips over the fact that the two lines are not in a code block.

Another example

#define INC_STUFF   x++; y++;

if ( cost > 2x )
      INC_STUFF;

x++ is conditional, y++ is not.

This is bad coding on two fronts, the {} we're talking about and having a non-atomic #define.

Rob