I will attempt to explain how I differentiate these things in the vain hope that this may make it easier for us to discuss these things. I say "vain" because I will probably fail due to my own communication abilities. I think these things are hard to distinguish due to their historical development in programming culture.
First, if you'll indulge me, when it comes to processing code-as-text, I think of the following 3 things with these definitions:
- Linting: True "error-checking", as in using an external program to check that your code file will not run if you try to execute it.
- Formatting: How the text looks in a text file. This is independent of whether it runs or not.
- "Programming style guide": How the code is organized, on a meta-level.