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0 pointshombre_fatal5y ago0 comments

You need to know when semicolons are necessary whether you use them or not.

And the whole point here is that tooling eslint/prettier prevents bugs.

Prettier will turn this:

    const x = foo()
    [1, 2, 3].forEach(...)

into this:

    const x = foo()[1, 2, 3].forEach(...)

Which makes the problem pretty obvious.

Btw, if you decide to avoid semicolons, one of the only rules you need to know is to prefix any line with a semicolon if it starts with "[(.

0 comments

traes5y ago

Introducing any mental overhead to eliminate a single character per line at most seems a tad ridiculous.

hombre_fatalOP5y ago

I haven't used semicolons for at least 5 years. Let's not overstate the "overhead", which I would say is zero. Especially in this comment thread where we just established the tooling handles it for you.

Frankly, I die inside every time I work with a semicolon codebase and have to move a semicolon just to chain onto:

    promise
      .then()
      .catch();
    + .then();

    foo
      .bar()
      .baz();
    + .qux();

You are making the common developer/HNer mistake of overvaluing familiarity and overestimating how hard anything slightly unfamiliar must be.

I challenge you to try it the next time you write some Javascript. Don't use semis and remember the one rule I taught you.

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