I swear we had a programming style's discussion/argument not less than a month ago. will it never end?!

Nope, it is a hazard of the profession

You're wasting vertical space ... this is much better

if (keyboard_check(vk_left)) {
x -= 5; }

There is nothing wrong with wasting space. As Servant said "Whitespace is free. Monitors are large." Everyone knows this is the right way:

if 
(
      keyboard_check
      (
          vk_left
      )
) 
{
        x -= 5;              
}

Who needs vertical space?

k\
e\
y\
b\
o\
a\
r\
d\
_\
c\
h\
e\
c\
k\
(\
v\
k\
_\
l\
e\
f\
t\
)\

/* ... */

As a bonus, all curly brace, whitespace, and indentation arguments are solved.

PS: the alternative is using absolutely no newlines, which in my opinion is less readable and doesn't take advantage of large monitors as well as this variant.

...snip...

As a bonus, all curly brace, whitespace, and indentation arguments are solved.

I think you have an incorrect definition for the word "solved".

I think you have an incorrect definition for the word "solved".

It's the corporate definition of "solved".

As in: "You contracted with us to build a text-based MUD, so we licensed the Unreal engine".

Since the 4 ifs are nearly identical, why not wrap this up in a function or something?

Ex:

void CheckKeyboard(int k, int *p, int i)
{
	if(keyboard_check(k))
		*p += i;
}

...

const int i = 5;
int x, y;

CheckKeyboard(vk_left,  &x, -i);
CheckKeyboard(vk_right, &x,  i);
CheckKeyboard(vk_up,    &y, -i);
CheckKeyboard(vk_down,  &y,  i);

I Should have used a better function name than CheckKeyboard but none came to mind...

Do you check the keyboard or do you keyboard the check?

Since the 4 ifs are nearly identical, why not wrap this up in a function or something?

Ex:

void CheckKeyboard(int k, int *p, int i){	if(keyboard_check(k))		*p += i;}...const int i = 5;int x, y;CheckKeyboard(vk_left,  &x, -i);CheckKeyboard(vk_right, &x,  i);CheckKeyboard(vk_up,    &y, -i);CheckKeyboard(vk_down,  &y,  i);

I Should have used a better function name than CheckKeyboard but none came to mind...

x += (int)keyboard_check(vk_right);X -= (int)keyboard_check(vk_left);y += (int)keyboard_check(vk_down);y -= (int)keyboard_check(vk_up);

Since the 4 ifs are nearly identical, why not wrap this up in a function or something?

Ex:

void CheckKeyboard(int k, int *p, int i){	if(keyboard_check(k))		*p += i;}...const int i = 5;int x, y;CheckKeyboard(vk_left,  &x, -i);CheckKeyboard(vk_right, &x,  i);CheckKeyboard(vk_up,    &y, -i);CheckKeyboard(vk_down,  &y,  i);

I Should have used a better function name than CheckKeyboard but none came to mind...

Just get rid of the if's and use the result of keyboard_check directly:

x += (int)keyboard_check(vk_right);
X -= (int)keyboard_check(vk_left);
y += (int)keyboard_check(vk_down);
y -= (int)keyboard_check(vk_up);

and bam, no more indentation/bracket positioning problems. =-)

If the language your using uses "1", "0", and "-1" for boolean that might work ( if you can deal with the "-1" ) , HOWEVER the increments the OP used are by 5, which throws a wrench in your example.

Do you check the keyboard or do you keyboard the check?

In Soviet Russia the keyboard checks you! (...or maybe the check keyboards you, which sounds a mite painful...)