Fwd: Java Code Conventions Update

[Franz van Betteraey]

Hi Martijn, hi all,

good thought! If it is more likely to keep the Code Conventions alive when
the are kept under version control than someone (official) should do that.
I lately noticed the Semantic Versioning Specification (http://semver.org/)
which is maintained using a GitHub project (
https://github.com/mojombo/semver).

Maybe the Java Code Conventions can be maintained the same way. It even
would be a help for the tools that check the conventions if they have a
common understanding of them.

Kind regards
  Franz

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Martijn Verburg <martijnverburg at gmail.com>
Date: 2013/8/7
Subject: Re: Java Code Conventions Update
To: Franz van Betteraey <franz.van.betteraey at googlemail.com>


Hi all,

Idle thought. It tends to be easier to maintain conventions in the form of
rules defined by tools such as checkstyle. Conventions docs that sit in
wikis or books tend to bit rot whereas a configuration file stored in
source control tends to stay alive.

Cheers,
Martijn


On 6 August 2013 22:05, Franz van Betteraey <
franz.van.betteraey at googlemail.com> wrote:

> I just noticed that there are two (very) old bug reports related to the
> Code Conventions topic:
>
> JDK-4785435 : bugs in CodeConventions on java.sun.com/docs/codeconv
> http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4785435
>
> last comment:
>
>     EVALUATION
>     We no longer support this document, for it has been replaced by
> Josh Bloch's book "Effective Java". This document served its purpose
> when no other existed, but it has reached the end of its life.
>     ###@###.### 2002-12-17
>
>
>
> JDK-4797268 : Code conventions need to be updated
> http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4797268
>
> last comment:
>
>     EVALUATION
>     Yes, we do need an updated code conventions doc. (20096-07-30)
>
>
>
> Both are closed with the "Won't fix" resolution. I wonder whether the
> document is to be kept up to date at all. If not it would be better to mark
> it as deprecated and point to alternative (up-to-date) resources (if they
> exist).
>
> Regards
>   Franz
>
>
> 2013/7/22 Franz van Betteraey <franz.van.betteraey at googlemail.com>
>
> > Hi there,
> >
> > I find it very helpful that Java Code Conventions exist for a long time
> > now. They really "improve the readability of the software, allowing
> > engineers to understand new code more quickly and thoroughly" (from the
> > Code Conventions web page).
> >
> > But while the Java language evolves the code conventions remain the same.
> > Since the Java Code Conventions were last updated in 1999 several new
> Java
> > language features were introduced including lambdas in the upcoming
> version
> > of Java 8.
> >
> > Would it not be nice to update the Code Conventions so that we do not
> need
> > to follow rules from the last century in Java 8 (which are not bad but
> > probably missing relevant parts)?
> >
> > I wonder if (or where) someone could make an "official" request for this.
> > Dalibor Topic suggested to bring this up on this discussion list (
> > https://twitter.com/robilad/**status/338350845315928064<
> https://twitter.com/robilad/status/338350845315928064>)
>
> > - so that's what I do now.
> >
> > Thanks for any support on this.
> >
> > Kind regards
> >   Franz
> >
>