[Dev] Coding Guidelines

[Donn Denman]

I've been using John's syntax of having a space before the paren, and 
at first found it hard to write, but now have gotten used to it.  I 
have always found it somewhat easier to read, though it may takes a bit 
time to get used to it.

- Donn

On Nov 18, 2004, at 6:11 PM, John Anderson wrote:

> I've always felt that
>
> myMethod(argumentOne, argumentTwo, argumentThree)
>
> was less readable than
>
> myMethod (argumentOne, argumentTwo, argumentThree)
>
> because we're used to reading prose with spaces between english words 
> and "myMethod(argumentOne" doesn't seem like a word. Of course, the 
> common practice is to write it without the space and I'm sure that 
> because everyone prefers what they are used to, my preference would be 
> in the minority -- and the majority opinion should win.
>
> In the past there have been other standards which I personally find 
> less readable, which have fallen out of practice, for example:
>
> mymth(a1,a2,a3)
>
> my_method(argument_one,argument_two,argument_three)
>
> and
>
> myMethod( argumentOne, argumentTwo, argumentThree )
>
> all of which are less like the way you'd write prose.
>
> John
>
> Brian Kirsch wrote:
>
>> Of course I vote for the non-space syntax method(arguments). I think 
>> it is easier to read and more widely used.
>> I do agree with Ted that we should standardize on one form or the 
>> other.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Brian Kirsch - Email Framework Engineer
>> Open Source Applications Foundation
>> 543 Howard St. 5th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 (415) 946-3056
>> On Nov 18, 2004, at 2:33 PM, Ted Leung wrote:
>>
>>> See below.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Nov 17, 2004, at 11:42 AM, John Anderson wrote:
>>>
>>>> The reason CPIA uses "sharedWebDAVCollections (self)" and services 
>>>> uses "sharedWebDAVCollections(self)" is probably because I wrote 
>>>> CPIA and Stuart wrote the services code. I use the extra space, 
>>>> most other people don't. I prefer the space because I think it 
>>>> enhances readabliity, especially when you get long strings of 
>>>> characters without any spaces, e.g. 
>>>> sharedWebDAVCollections(self,parameter1,parameter2,parameter3)
>>>>
>>>> In the past I've preferred strict coding standards which I thought 
>>>> made the code more readable.  However as I've gotten older and more 
>>>> comfortable with lots of different coding standards I'm less 
>>>> bothered by small variations in style -- and, in an open source 
>>>> world it's harder to enforce standards and in a commercial setting.
>>>
>>>
>>> One factor for me is that having multiple styles makes it hard for 
>>> some tools to work effectively on the codebase.   For example, it is 
>>> much nastier to grep for both versions than only one of them.
>>>
>>> As far as the open source world goes, we determine who gets access 
>>> to our repository.  If they refuse to follow our coding conventions, 
>>> we don't have to let them in.  Part of being in a community is 
>>> working within community norms.  The good open source projects admit 
>>> new developers on the basis of merit, where merit is composed of a 
>>> number of factors, and not only technical ones.
>>>
>>> Ted
>>>
>>>>
>>>> So, although I have a presonal preference on this style issue I 
>>>> think it's best to follow the group concensus.
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>>
>>>> Brian Kirsch wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hello,
>>>>> I've noticed in the CPIA code that many of the methods 
>>>>> declarations and calls have a space between the
>>>>> method name and the argument list i.e.  def 
>>>>> sharedWebDAVCollections (self). I was wondering if there was a 
>>>>> specific reason for the space? The Services code uses the 
>>>>> traditional methodName() syntax with no space. We should 
>>>>> standardize on one form of the other to prevent a coding 
>>>>> consistency problem among layers.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Brian Kirsch - Email Framework Engineer
>>>>> Open Source Applications Foundation
>>>>> 543 Howard St. 5th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 (415) 946-3056
>>>>>
>>>>> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>>>>>
>>>>> Open Source Applications Foundation "Dev" mailing list
>>>>> http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>> ----
>>> Ted Leung                 Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF)
>>> PGP Fingerprint: 1003 7870 251F FA71 A59A  CEE3 BEBA 2B87 F5FC 4B42
>>>
>>
>>
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