CHAPTER 3 : General Principles

PART 1 : BASICS

CHAPTER 3 : General Principles

3.1 Keywords

3.2 Think of the reader

3.3 Keep it simple

3.4 Be explicit

3.5 Be consistent

3.6 Minimize scope

3.7 There's no one true style

3.8 A standard which isn't used, isn't a standard

3.9 Distinguish between standards and guidelines

3.10 Standards don't guarantee good coding

3.11 Decide on your portability quotient

3.12 Standards are a function of their audience

3.13 Keep project standards

3.14 Use standard libraries

3.15 Utilize available tools

3.16 Summary

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3.12 Standards are a function of their audience

For a mature organization, with well established methodologies and a stable workforce working on well-understood systems, coding standards probably need only be brief and general, delving into detail only on occasional selected points. On the other hand, for an organization in which there is a young workforce, where they are moving between projects (or even leaving the company) or where the projects are large, complex or will have a very long lifetime, then standards need to be much tighter and more heavily policed.

Ideally, coding standards are company wide, but in practice different groups may have differing needs. The minimum scope of standards should be a single project team, although these may be selected from a larger set of company standards.

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