d43bee70   
   From: richard.corden@gmail.com   
      
   On 05/17/2011 12:57 AM, Andrew wrote:   
      
   [...]   
      
   > ... But what suprised me was   
   > when a couple of people said that coding stds add no value. This made   
   > me think.   
   >   
      
   [...]   
      
   > In the discussion it was not made clear if the stds were to do with   
   > style, layout, naming conventions etc rather than practices to observe   
   > and practices to avoid. Coding stds often mix the two. I am   
   > considering that maybe these colleagues had a point for the first kind   
   > (style etc). Maybe that doesn't add any value. But stds that cover the   
   > 2nd category maybe do.   
      
   [...]   
      
   > Any comments? Do they add value? Why? What kind of stds?   
      
   A standard should do at least 2 things:   
      
   1) Reduce the number of silly gotchas appearing in the code.   
      
   2) Educate.   
      
   As you point out, there's a 3rd category for style/code layout.  On a large   
   project, some say that consistency of style improves code comprehension.    
   However, I would be more concerned about developers "fixing the class header   
   so it's the right way round"   
    (or is it just me that wants to do this?).   Every code change has the   
   possibility of making things worse than they are, consistency of style may go   
   a bit of the way to reduce unnecessary changes.   
      
      
   In general, it's important that a rule:   
   * has a detailed explanation and example as to what it does, and   
   * is open for discussion on inclusion in the standard.   
      
   Depending on your environment it may only be possible to agree on twenty   
   things, however, IMHO such a project will be better than a project with no   
   rules.   
      
      
      
   --   
   Richard Corden   
      
      
         [ See http://www.gotw.ca/resources/clcm.htm for info about ]   
         [ comp.lang.c++.moderated.    First time posters: Do this! ]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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