Rick Hillegas wrote:
I don't want to stop the vote if we can avoid it. However, I have some
misgivings that we may not agree on what we're approving. Everyone may
be hearing what they want to hear.
I see what you are saying about folks hearing what they want to hear.
Clarity is the key goal of Derby's coding standards. The coding
guidelines at
http://java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/html/CodeConvTOC.doc.html are a
style primer, not a law book. Mine this document for good examples but
use your common sense. Feel free to disregard any advice which is
religious in nature or which would make your code brittle. Above all
else, write clearly.
I don't think this wording would bring us into compliance with the db
project guidelines that we have a "well-defined convention" and would
create a state without a general agreed upon direction where we are
bound to have countless discussions about code formatting "religion" as
you put it. We need an agreed upon base color for our shed. If as
folks are painting they feel the need to vary a bit that does not
interfere with the general color scheme, add trim etc, that is
reasonable, but we don't want to go back to a state where we encourage
everyone to grab a can of whatever color paint they want and start
painting and repainting, running colors into each other and have to
debate about it.
Kathey
