Re: Coding Standards

["W. Wesley Groleau (Wes)" <wwgrol@PSESERV3.FW.HAC.COM>]

After I said:
>> Indeed, if you can't understand or maintain the code without the standard,
>> then the coding standard is not making the code more maintainable, is it?

R.D. answered:
> By the same argument, why should programmers have to read the Ada
> manual?  After all, if you can't understand or maintain the code without
> the Standard, then the language standard is not making the code more
> readable.  For example, if you don't understand the type checking rules,
> then type checking won't help you understand the program.  ;-)
>
> I can assure you that if you work on a project where I'm the boss, and
> it's written in Ada, you will be required to know Ada, and to know
> project-wide conventions about Ada, and so on.

I think you're reading too much into my comment.  I was not criticizing
your initialization convention (I'm still undecided on that).  Nor did
I suggest that programmers be allowed to shrug off coding standards.
(People that have worked with me know I can be a bit of a curmudgeon
about format and style.)

But the main point of coding standards is maintainability via readability.
I believe that the code should be as clear as possible to the READER without
external support.  There is a difference between a feature of the language
that supports reliability in general and a local convention that adds
semantics to the code.

Readability was one of the original goals of Ada.  If we really wanted to
make sure that people used the standards and references extensively, we
could have derived Ada from RPG, APL, and C rather than Algol and Pascal. :-)

I want the customer, outside consultants, future maintainers, etc.--who may
not be able to find (or who may not be obligated to) a coding standard that
may no longer be valid--to understand the code.  Now if they are going to
change it, yes, I will vigorously defend the current coding standards of
the project.

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W. Wesley Groleau (Wes)                                Office: 219-429-4923
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