Tag: coding standards

About

Coding conventions are rules that computer programmers follow to help ensure that their source code is easy to read and maintain. Coding conventions are only applicable to the human maintainers and peer reviewers of a software project. Conventions may be formalized in a documented set of rules that an entire team or company follows, or may be as informal as the habitual coding practices of an individual. Coding conventions have no impact on the executable programs which are created from the source.

Software maintenance

Reducing the cost of software maintenance is the most often cited reason for following coding conventions. In their introduction to code conventions for the Java Programming Language, Sun Microsystems provides the following rationale:

Code conventions are important to programmers for a number of reasons:

  • 80% of the lifetime cost of a piece of software goes to maintenance.
  • Hardly any software is maintained for its whole life by the original author.
  • Code conventions improve the readability of the software, allowing engineers to understand new code more quickly and thoroughly.
  • If you ship your source code as a product, you need to make sure it is as well packaged and clean as any other product you create.

From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_conventions

 

SQL Formatting

With all the abstraction layers between code & database, and now with my recent CakePHP adventures: The need for writing SQL statements deminishes. But over the years I've developed my own way of formatting them. And before I'll have to wave queries goodbye forever ;) I just want to put it out there.

PEAR Coding Standards Changed!

In another article I've told you about how I would like to see one rule removed from the PEAR Coding Standards. This rule would allow developers a bit more flexibility, while staying true to the convention.

PEAR Coding Standards Change?

Since a couple of months now, I've been involved with PEAR as a contributor. Contributing to PEAR means adhering to the PEAR Coding Standards. Their standards have actually been thought over, and using them for projects (also outside of PEAR), leads to consistency, and makes it easier for many developers to understand each other's code.

Code can be scanned and checked for conformity using the PHP CodeSniffer package.

It took me a while to get rid...