Make "fewerBraces" available outside snapshot releases

[sjrd]

@lihaoyi

TBH I think part of the reason this looks bad is the small 2-space indentation. 4-space indents make the grouping and scopes very clear (at the cost of pushing things to the right):

I was against that for indentation in general, and I am still against that. This essentially proposes trading vertical space (braces) for horizontal space (more indentation). The latter resource is the scarcest, so this is entirely the wrong trade-off!

@odersky

What I like about the second version is the regularity in the sense that the “.” always align in the same way. Single line chaining:

You can get that regularity with braces as well, if that’s really the important thing:

abc
  .map { x =>
    ...
  }
  .toSet

It does use one more line, though.

@lihaoyi

The “people can use indentation, or braces, or end-markers, whatever they like” approach, […]

While I agree with your point about indentation versus braces, IMO presenting end markers as a third option is misleading. end markers are a part of the indentation-based syntax. They provide a visible ending to larger pieces of indentation-based blocks. They even provide some added value compared to braces, in having a compiler-checked repetition of the name of the thing that is being closed. They are extremely helpful in an indentation-based codebase that exceeds one screen of vertical space.