1. Introduction
Many writing systems, notably a handful of East Asian scripts, may be oriented either horizontally or vertically. While code is generally written left to write and top to bottom, there is no inherent reason this must be the case. In fact, in this paper we will show that vertical writing of code has numerous benefits over traditional horizontal code.
In this paper we propose support for vertical text in C++:
#define __vertical_processing } it ne tm p r } ftsl e oyua t rpmt u ( e ( e r scns < n uoatt mnmdy s se : p u + t : e m = ssn ; atpa iudam tt : ne eo : < m & rTT ; e ,, im toEs ev > t me d _a : : cr : ors an ) i rs z rt { e ) _ _ t t { < T E > > s u m { } ;
2. Motivation
In addition to accessibility and friendliness for natural writing styles of all cultures, vertical writing of code allows for better use of modern computer monitors. Over the last few decades, monitors have definitively trended to get wider but not so much taller (fig a). We observe that programmers typically limit their line length (when written left-to-right) at fixed character limits such as 80, 100, or 120. Meanwhile, the vertical length of a source file typically has no hard limits. Given recent trends and accepted practices with regards to line length limitations, it’s clearly beneficial to write code vertically with line length limitations applying on the vertical access so that code may benefit from today’s wide screen monitors, as well as future wider screen monitors.
Fig A: An ultra-widescreen monitor, circa 2025
Because humans have a much narrower vertical field of view compared to horizontal (fig b), it’s not a satisfactory solution to rotate monitors vertically. Additionally, with today’s ultra-wide monitors, vertical orientation would not work on most desks and would lead to unergonomic craning of the neck.
As such, by taking advantage of vertical text on ultrawide monitors, we can read more characters before we need to move our head reducing excessive muscle movement during programming.
Fig B: Human eye field of view
Humans are not alone in this regard, many animals have much wider horizontal field of view compared to vertical. For example, the Tyrannosaurus rex as with other tyrannosaurids and theropods feature an even greater total field of view:
Fig C: Field of view for Tyrannosaurus and Tarbosaurus
Sacrificing narrower binocular field of view for more total field of view is a trait attributed to their predatory nature and evidenced by the eye placement in the skulls of these dinosaurs:
Fig D: A Tyrannosaurus rex pictured making the famous "pogchamp" face
Note: Despite possibly being fluffy and covered by feathers, do not pet these animals.
As such, we believe the Tyrannosaurus rex as well as other tyrannosaurids and therapods are well-equipped for modern wide-screen monitors and would likely program quite effectively in the vertical orientation on such devices. We are currently seeking funding for exploring this hypothesis.
See also: § 10 Annex A: Supplemental figs
3. Recommended Solution
We propose adding support to the C++ preprocessor for vertical text via the preprocessor definition,
#define __vertical_processing } i n rt e ts uq ru na r ne u ( mi n * t nn uu mm ;) {
Here’s a slightly more involved example:
#define __vertical_processing } i ###n iii t nnn ccc ) s } wism lll ; t hnta uuu d itdi ddd : l : n eee ) s ": vex:( tSp e ; v ) <<< dur c ( e pva : mi . s c { rel s0vv :: n pt t icg t , eer t ud o nto d cca { l s : r tor : .. n } n h : < > ri : ebg "( _c i >t p nee , bi n h l dgs an t m u ( i : c > > s ) n : k > < ,( f ( > v i ) o x e n , l ) x c t d ;) ; > _ ( l { ) e f t (
As one would expect, reading such code becomes perfectly natural after just a few minutes of looking at it.
To examine a real world example, here is Erik Rigtorp’s SPSCQueue translated to vertical text [rigtorp]. Even at a glance it is much easier to read (not that the code is hard to read when laid out traditionally, it is in fact quite nicely written code, made even easier by this paper). Be sure to use an ultrawide wide monitor for the best viewing experience:
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4. Why This Isn’t a Tooling Problem
One could imagine tooling support for vertical code where the tooling saves vertically written text to disk equivalently to if it were written horizontally. Naturally, there are no rules stating that characters on disk are to be laid out horizontally by a text editor. However, this convention has been so deeply ingrained into software since the beginning of the universe (January 1, 1970), that it is de-facto a law of computer software.
We find any editor tooling solutions undesirable for a couple of important reasons:
Firstly, despite decades of innovation in the text editor domain, no tooling supports this obvious feature. As such, we don’t anticipate any native tooling support any time soon. Naturally, even if some tools added support, there will always be software lagging behind in support. We view this as imputus for WG21 to pick up the torch and lead industry adoption.
Additionally, this opens the door for code to be laid out in radically different ways for various users depending on how
they are reading the code. This is the same problem encountered by "hard tabs," which are rendered by default as 4
characters wide on good editors and 8 characters wide on some other editors (that’s as many characters as bits in a
5. Design
Unfortunately, because the decision was made by Bjarne Stroustrup to have C++ compilers interpret source code linearly in a file, thus corresponding to horizontally as presented by editors, the directive used to change processing must be horizontal as well. We recommend implementations facilitate options and command-line parameters for this in addition to the standard-sanctioned approach.
6. Switching out of vertical processing mode
The syntax begs the question: What about
For example:
#define __vertical_processing i n t s q u a r e ( i n t n u m ) { #undef __vertical_processing return num * num ; }
7. Implementability
The transformation between traditional horizontal and vertical text is firmly rooted in mathematics, which lends this to a straightforward implementation by adding a new translation phase between phases 1 and 2. In translation phase 1.5, a compiler may trivially identify vertical processing sections within a file and apply the following transformation:
For ease of implementation, we require the exact spelling
8. Improving WG21 Papers
There’s no reason this should be limited to source code, we can apply this same technology to improve papers submitted to WG21:
9. Proposed Wording
Proposed wording relative to [N5008]:
Add a new list item numbered 1.5 after [lex.phases] paragraph 1 list item 1:
#define __vertical_processing #undef __vertical_processing #undef __vertical_processing #define __vertical_processing 10. Annex A: Supplemental figs
Fig E and G:
