Blameless code formatting

Code formatting has the potential to keep an organisation's code formatted consistently, leading to improved readability and maintainability. However, the adoption of code formatters on existing codebases is often hindered by concerns about the potential loss of per-line version history, which is essential for reviewers. During a code review, a reviewer would use the per-line version history to find the last author to modify a particular section of code, a practice commonly known as blaming. The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to explore strategies for formatting source code while preserving the information stored in the version history. This will be followed by an in-depth study designed to better understand the effectiveness of code formatters in preserving developer intent in code. By striking a balance between code readability and preservation of historical context, this research will facilitate the widespread use of code formatters, ultimately improving code quality and developer productivity.