Considerations

Proceed with caution

Any developer looking to adopt an EditorConfig falls into one of these roles:

• Owner of a new project
• Owner of an existing project
• Contributor to a new project
• Contributor to an existing project

Project owners will always have an easier time implementing code style related changes than contributors.

If you own a new project, then there is little reason not adopt an EditorConfig, as it is a small time investment that provides some great benefits.

Contributors, even to projects just getting started, should proceed with caution.

Contributing to existing projects

Making code style related changes to existing projects can be challenging if you don’t own the code.

As a contributor, a good approach would be to:

• Make your intentions known
• Get buy-in on a minimal or well-established EditorConfig file
• Follow the recommended process for resolving violations
• For potentially controversial rules it may be beneficial to open an issue/discussion before introducing the rule and making changes
• Only after resolving the build-in analyzers should additional analyzer packages be considered

These articles emphasize the importance of a slow and thoughtful approach to making code style related changes:

• Open Source Contribution Etiquette, by Miguel de Icaza
• Don’t “Push Your Pull Requests, by Ilya Grigorik