SPC Ada Quality and Style guide, version 2

[milton!mfeldman@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In the rush to send off the posting about capitalization religions,
I neglected to mention that, IMNSHO, the SPC document is a nice and 
generally thoughtful compendium of the current wisdom on Ada code
quality and style. It's thought-provoking, for sure, and instead of
re-inventing the wheel, cites other sources where appropriate (the
old Nissen/Wallis compendium, other draft handbooks, etc.). All in
all, a well-done and intellectually-honest reference.

Some of the statements, especially on religious but relatively minor
matters like capitalization, are too equivocal, in my opinion; they
should either take a strong stand or show examples of the different
valid ways to do it. But on the whole, and on matters more substantial
than lexical style, the recommendations guidelines to represent mainstream 
consensus and present the issues in a balanced and well-considered fashion.

As I said in the other post, SPC cannot be held responsible if a
narrow-minded manager adopts their guidelines as gospel. There are
many paths to good style and good design, and a savvy design team -
managers and tekkies alike - will work things out in a consistent
manner best-suited to the project at hand.

I believe it would be a mistake for DoD or any other large
organization to adopt a guidebook as a _standard_ and mandate
compliance. That sort of oversimplification is exactly what we do
NOT need. 

Get a copy and read it, if you're serious about Ada. You might not
agree with everything in it (I don't), but it'll make you think, and
that's (part of) what it's all about.

Mike