I disagree with OP on his bullet points of what doesn&#x27;t matter (and I don&#x27;t think it follows from the anecdote):<p>&gt; That indentation is more than an incidental detail.<p>&gt; That good programming is about following a set of rules.<p>&gt; That aesthetics matter in code beyond the behavior being implemented.<p>I&#x27;m going to leave indentation aside for the moment, and talk about line length. People do serious research into how line length in text layout affects various aspects of reading: ease of comprehension, perceived ease of reading (not the same thing, apparently[0]).<p>Breaking up long lines has no effect on program behaviour, but it does have an effect on comprehension. And programming is by and large a team sport, in which any given piece of code is read many more times than it is written.<p>We think of, say, four-spaces-versus-two-spaces as a matter of preference and a source of silly holy wars. It needn&#x27;t be only those things, however: on this, I have no convenient research link, but research could be done, and I have never noticed anyone using one-space indentation, suggesting that it isn&#x27;t a purely arbitrary choice.<p>So OP&#x27;s story of his student seems to directly undermine his conclusions: yes, aesthetics DO matter &quot;beyond the behaviour being implemented&quot;, and whitespace is more than an incidental detail if you want code to be easier to debug and change. Following rules is hardly the worst way to get a sensible default for code readability - it is rare that there is a set of code-style rules that results in utterly illegible gibberish. There is always the danger of cargo-culting, but that&#x27;s life.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tandfonline.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;abs&#x2F;10.1080&#x2F;01449290410001715714" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tandfonline.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;abs&#x2F;10.1080&#x2F;01449290410001715...</a>, summarised here <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.fawny.org&#x2F;2005&#x2F;09&#x2F;21&#x2F;measures&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.fawny.org&#x2F;2005&#x2F;09&#x2F;21&#x2F;measures&#x2F;</a>