ITEC 120 2007spring ibarland, jpittges

home—info—exams—lectures—labs—hws
Recipe—Laws—lies—syntax—java.lang docs—java.util docs

laws
The Laws of Programming

The Laws

• 0. Your program's structure should reflect the problem's structure.
• 1. No repeated code. (including: No Magic Numbers)
• 2. One Function, One Task.
• 3. Programs must be human-readable.
• 4. Develop test cases before code.

The Edicts of Programming

• Include parentheses if it makes things clearer, even if not required by Java's rules of operator precedence and association.
  Example: (new Integer(35)).toHexString()
• Separate the model from the view/control.
• No public fields — use public getter/setters as needed.

The Conventions of Programming

• Named Constants in ALL_CAPS (most all languages)
• Class names begin with a capital letter; all other names (besides named constants) a lower-case letter. [Java-specific]

The Guidelines of Programming

• In if and if-else statements, always include the curly-braces.
  (Allowable exception: if statements so short they fit entirely on a single line.)
• Don't assign to parameters.
• A function should change state, or return a value, but not both.
• Only one return statement in a function.
  (I don't mind this one, personally.)

home—info—exams—lectures—labs—hws
Recipe—Laws—lies—syntax—java.lang docs—java.util docs

©2007, Ian Barland, Radford University Last modified 2007.Aug.27 (Mon)

Please mail any suggestions (incl. typos, broken links) to iba�rlandrad�ford.edu