coding standards

[Rich Thomson <rthomson@ptc.com>]

Every once in a while I'm reminded of one of the best things (as a
software engineer) that I took away from Delta: coding standards.

Now I know that many of you will balk at the assertion, especially
since most software engineering/programmer types are an independent
lot and don't like the idea of being told to write code in a certain
style.

But having worked on 'real software' for the past 10 years, where I've
had to either change, understand or maintain someone else's poorly
documented or written code, I appreciate the idea behind a coding
standard much more now.

Of course, coding standards can be taken too far, but I don't remember
DELTA's coding standard as excessive.  Just things like putting
subroutines in a certain line number range, putting functions in
another line number range, etc.

Does anyone happen to have a copy of the DELTA coding standard?  Maybe
Ed Boas has one, I seem to remember him as one of the main
promulgators of the standard.

And then there was Ed Jones' idea of:

    10 for the.loop.variable.% = 1% to 10%

:)

And while I'm reminiscing, does anyone remember writing little utility
hacks as a basic-plus file with statements one one big continued line,
but without a line number?  When you loaded them into your workspace,
the statements executed immediately and then were forgotten (since
they didn't have line numbers).  I don't remember if it was myself or
someone else who discovered this trick, but it was akin to writing
unix shell scripts.  Kinda cool!
--
					    Rich Thomson
					    rthomson@ptc.com