Project specific coding conventions

Project specific coding conventions

1. Brackets

All brackets (class, method, if, try, etc) must begin and end on a new line. Example :

public class SomeClass
{
    public void someMethod()
    {
        if (xxx)
        {
        }
    }
}

				

Brackets are mandatory, even for single line statements !

// Incorrect
if (expression)
    // some code

// Correct
if (expression)
{
    // some code
}

				

2. Blank Spaces

keywords followed by a parenthesis should be separated by a space. Example :

while (true)
{
    // some code
}

				

Blank space should appear after commas in argument lists. Binary operators should be separated from their operands by spaces :

a += c + d;
a = (a + b) / (c * d);

while (d++ = s++)
{
    n++;
}

printSize("size is " + foo + "/n");

				

3. Indentations

4 spaces. NO tabs . Period. We understand that a lot of you like to use tabs, but the fact of the matter is that in a distributed development environment, when the cvs commit messages get sent to a mailing list, they are almost impossible to read if you use tabs.

4. Comments

Javadoc SHOULD exist on all your class members (methods + class variables), including the private ones. Also, if you are working on existing code and there currently isn't a javadoc for that method/class/variable or whatever, then you should contribute and add it. This will improve the project as a whole.
Also add code comments when you think it's necessary (like assumptions), especially when the code is not obvious.

5. Author references

If you contribute to a file (code or documentation), add yourself to the top of the file (below the existing authors). For java files the preferred Javadoc format is:

@author devnickname

				

7. Class variables

Class variables should not have any prefix and must be referenced using the this object. Example :

public class SomeClass
{
    private String someString;
[...]
    public void someMethod()
    {
        logger.debug("Value = " + this.someString);
    }
}

				

8. Parameter names

Method parameters should not have any prefix. For example :

public void someMethod(String className)
{
}

				

9. Line length

Avoid lines longer than 120 characters for Code, comments, ...

10. Versioning

All .java files should have a @version tag like the one below.

@version $Revision$ ($Author$)

				

11. Qualified imports

All import statements should containing the full class name of classes to import and should not use the "*" notation :
An example :

// Correct
import java.util.Date;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;

// Not correct
import java.util.*;
import java.net.*;