Re: My first attempt at java code fails. OK, why please?

Mike Barnard wrote:


The link had better be
<http://java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/index.html>

Anything else for Java coding conventions is either a rehash of that or
expresses a private convention.

As for the conventions, remember that there's wiggle room.

A substantial contingent puts opening braces under the control statement,
method declaration or whatever, not on the same line, thus

  public void doSomething( Foo arg )
  {
   if ( arg == null )
   {
     final String msg = "Null arg";
     logger.error( msg );
     throw new IllegalArgumentException( msg );
   }
   ...

as opposed to

  public void doSomething( Foo arg ) {
   if ( arg == null ) {
     final String msg = "Null arg";
     logger.error( msg );
     throw new IllegalArgumentException( msg );
   }
   ...

Both styles are generally recognized, though the discussion of which is better
is on the order of the religious wars fought over transubstantiation vs.
consubstantiation, with burning at the stake being figurative rather than literal.

Just so you know, putting the opening brace on its own line is the One True
Way, and those who follow the "on-the-same-line" dogma of the official
convention are the heretics. Smiley-face. (Too many humorless fuddy-duddies
who read this forum might miss the ironic humor in my claim, so: SMILEY-FACE!
  Get it? SMILEY-FACE! Even though it's only the simple truth -
opening-brace on its own line is clearly the superior style. Just don't
indent the braces differently from their controlling line.)

Also in wiggle room - spelling a non-constant 'final' variable with all upper
case and underscores. This is defensible if the object it points to is immutable.

Also in wiggle room - the exact amount to indent nested levels. Up to eight
spaces is cool for real code, but four is better and is the maximum for Usenet
posts. Don't use TABs to indent.

Also in wiggle room, but less so - package names should be all lower case,
with no underscores. You can sometimes get away with an upper-case letter.

Also in wiggle room - using your domain or a fake domain to derive package
names. Code for the "foo" project from "lewscanon.com" should have the domain
reversed as the package namespace prefix, thus "com.lewscanon.foo",
"com.lewscanon.foo.utility", etc. You can certainly use other prefixes.

--
Lew