Out of Cheese

Someone on java-dev mentioned today that Sun has a set of coding conventions for Java. I’m rarely a fan of strict coding conventions, since in my experience it’s easier to write and maintain legible code than to change my thinking to conform to a style that feels and reads as if it’s unnatural. In this case, though, Sun’s guidelines are flexible, providing reasonable options for most situations, and where they’re strict they’re being sensible. I’m quite impressed.

The Java conventions are probably a big part of why I liked Java from the first time I used it. The common coding style seemed natural, so I didn’t feel like I was being forced to conform to it.