I am working on a couple of patches for sanselan. These involve about a couple of dozen files. I had two questions about coding style:
First question: Is it okay to use generics for collections? These are a Java 1.5 element and I've noticed a couple of comments on the project page mentioning support for 1.4. I suspect that consideration is now obsolete since Java is now into version 1.7. Second question: Does anyone have preferences/guidelines for including "revision history" or "change log" information in the comments? At the present time, the sanselan code is practically without any comments at all, so I don't have any examples. I can see an argument for not including change log comments in a file because the subversion system maintains information about change histories. I can also see an argument for including them because a list of short, informative change notes at the top of a file can save a lot of time in the middle of a debugging session, especially in those times when one doesn't have access to the Internet Here's a strawman for a change log. I would put these in the code right below the Apache copyright information which appears at the top of all sanselan code files. /*------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * Revision History: * * Date Name Description * ------ --------- --------------------------------------------------- * --/---- Sanselan Sanselan 0.97 baseline (author unknown) * 09/2011 G. Lucas Fix byte-order issue in double arrays for EXIF tags *-------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Notes: *-------------------------------------------------------------------------- */ Computer Programming is the Art of the Possible Gary W. Lucas Sonalysts, Inc. 215 Parkway North Waterford, CT 06385 41-22-12.35 N / 72-10-07.54 W (USNG/MGRS: 18T YL 36787 83711) --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@commons.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@commons.apache.org
