Path: csiph.com!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: =?UTF-8?Q?Arne_Vajh=c3=b8j?= <arne@vajhoej.dk>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: Re: Style police (Was: Re: How to handle same sanity checks)
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2017 19:14:41 -0400
Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server
Lines: 62
Message-ID: <oipg4v$itb$1@gioia.aioe.org>
References: <87o9tgo0a9.fsf@munus.decebal.nl> <er9hnkFql1qU1@mid.individual.net> <oiov2l$1nso$1@gioia.aioe.org> <oip9ms$tkh$1@dont-email.me>
NNTP-Posting-Host: PBuS014lhzVyHjLbXmo/ZQ.user.gioia.aioe.org
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.2.1
X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2
Content-Language: en-US
Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:36723

On 6/25/2017 5:28 PM, Eric Sosman wrote:
> On 6/25/2017 2:23 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 6/25/2017 6:31 AM, Robert Klemme wrote:
>>> [...]
>>> A few minor remarks: brackets around comparisons are not needed.
>>
>> Not necessary.
>>
>> But actually recommended in the traditional Java coding convention.
>>
>> <quote>
>> 10.5.1 Parentheses
>>
>> It is generally a good idea to use parentheses liberally in 
>> expressions involving mixed operators to avoid operator precedence 
>> problems. Even if the operator precedence seems clear to you, it might 
>> not be to others-you shouldn't assume that other programmers know 
>> precedence as well as you do.
>>
>>      if (a == b && c == d)     // AVOID!
>>      if ((a == b) && (c == d)) // RIGHT
>>
>> </quote>
> 
>      Is anybody aware of any actual research into the value of
> this "generally good" practice, or does "generally good" merely
> mean "it's my prejudice, so as author I'll claim it's good?"

Many of these best practices are very hard to empirically
prove.

So it end up with whether you trust the people preaching
the best practice.

This one is also in McConnell's Code Complete.

Section 31.2:

<quote>
Use more parentheses than you think you need. Use parentheses to
clarify expressions that involve more than two terms. They may
not be needed, but they add clarity and they don't cost you anything.
</quote>

I have noticed that it is a very common problem among
beginner programmers to get unexpected results due to lack
of parentheses. For whatever reason SQL seems particular
prone to this error.

Whether you would let your coding style influence by:
* The gentleman Peter King, Patrick Naughton, Mike DeMoney,
   Jonni Kanerva, Kathy Walrath, and Scott Hommel from SUN
   (that apperently contributed to Java coding convention)
* McConnel
* a random dude on the internet: me
is up to you.

Arne