Re: Coding Standards

Martin Gregorie <martin@see.sig.for.address> writes:

  For completeness, my style:

  I write short if-statements on a single line,
  preferably without unnecessary braces:

if( a )b();

  This might be influenced by my general style rule:

      ?When two notations have the same meaning,
      in doubt, choose the one that is shorter.?

  Line breaks are added so as to respect the
  syntactical structure. The if-statement's syntax is:

      ?if ( Expression ) Statement?

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/statements.html#14.9

  The following line break would not respect this:

       .----------- break between ?if ( Expression )? and ?Statement?
       v
if( a ) {
         ^
         '--------- line break
  b(); ...

  This disrespects ?well-structured programming?
  according to my definition of that term:

      ?A formal text is well-structured
      if its surface structure matches its deep structure
      as close as possible.?

  Above, the surface structure (line breaks) is misleading
  about the deep structure (syntactical breaks).

  Therefore, it looks ugly to me, and I break like:

if( a ) // if ( Expression )
{ b(); } // Statement

  When there are multiple lines in the block:

if( a )
{ b();
  c(); }

  Sometimes, I want to put the braces on a line for
  themselves to add additional vertical space for
  readability. If I have to force each braces on a line,
  I write:

if( a )
{
  b();
  c();
  }

  Here, one sees, that I do not align matching braces.

  I feel the first brace ?{? to be still part of the outer block,
  because it transfers the control to the inner block like a
  method call, which is still part of the calling block.

  Conversely, the last brace ?}? transfers control back
  to the caller, like a return statement. So it is indented
  with the inner block.

  This is also consistent with a one-pass indenter, that can
  change indentation only /after/ it has read a character. The
  ?{? changes the indentation by 2, the ?} by -2, but only after
  it was already encountered. So the change becomes visible at
  the line break following the indentation-changing symbol for
  the first time.