Quick Thoughts on Creating Coding Standards
Introduction No team says, "write your code however the heck you want." Unless you are coding alone, it generally helps to have an agreed upon coding standard. Agreeing upon a coding standard, however, can be a painful process full of heated arguments and hurt feelings. This morning I thought it might be useful to first categorize coding standard items before starting the arguments. My hope is that once we categorize coding standard items we can use better decision criteria for each category of items and cut down on arguing. Below are the categories I came up with really quickly with descriptions, examples, and decision criteria for each category. Feedback is welcome in the comments. Categories of Things in Coding Standards Language Specific Pitfalls Characteristics not subjective, easy to recognize pattern well recognized in the industry as dangerous people have war stories and about these with associated scars to prove it Examples no multiple dec...