Industry coding standards

[filburt1]

Half of these are from NASA's Java style guide that I use at work(http://aaa.gsfc.nasa.gov/Files/JavaFinal.doc).

1. Use whitespace liberally for readability:
Wrong:


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Right:


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2. Braces on newlines:


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Right:


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(this might not look important but in big files it greatly helps)

3. Don't exceed 80 chars per line (for code printing and reading on low-res and effectively-low-res environments). No example because it'll break the layout here, but if a line exceeds 80 chars, break it up a bit before 80, and then continue it on the next line while indenting one tab (NASA suggests two tabs but it can make the code very messy).

4. Use a 4-space (not a tab character) indent.
Wrong (right from vB2...):


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Right:


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5. NEVER use deprecated methods of coding. Examples:
1. $HTTP_POST_VARS
2. $somearray[somenonconstant]
3. mysql_db_query()

Fixed:
1. $_POST
2. $somearray['somenonconstant'] (a very common problem that you need to lose!)
3. mysql_query()


There are more and I don't mean to sound pushy, but every single thing I've said in this post is considered the professional industry standard and if you program for a profession then you'd be expected to follow these.

[grog6]

Thx for it Filburt, but we can't consider it as mistakes ... it's just better if you don't work alone, so it is clearer for everybody ;)

I'll take care for it in the future :)

[Brad]

A very good read.

[filburt1]

Today at 03:32 PM grog6 said this in Post #2 (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?postid=388046#post388046)
Thx for it Filburt, but we can't consider it as mistakes ... it's just better if you don't work alone, so it is clearer for everybody ;)

I'll take care for it in the future :)

It's still a good habit to use for when you look back on your code a few months later and think "what the hell was I doing right here?"

[colicab-d]

format of your code is a biggy... and fro some langiages can be a bloody joke.. ie truebasic :mad: , tho i have to admit ive seen a fair few php scripts that over look putting braces on new lines etc.

Its amazing how annoying something like that can be sometimes

[Dean C]

Good tips there filburt :)

- miSt

[Xenon]

everyone started coding in a crappy style i think, but it's improving.

vb3 will follow these standarts above :)

[Dean C]

Well i found out all about indenting by accident in my text editor today. It does it all automatically so... ;)

- miSt