Java Best Practices

[Jeremias Maerki <de...@greenmail.ch>]

Hi there

Over on the FOP mailing list we're currently putting together a Style
Guide for our Java and XML sources. We've got some MUSTs and a lot of
SHOULDs that shouldn't really blow up that document. So now that we've
got a Wiki it would be a nice idea to come up with a Best Practice Guide
to Java that we could link to. And why not have all these bright Apache
people stick their heads together to create a wonderful resource.

Rules:
- Well structured
- Clear and concise
- Better only widely agreed facts and experiences than personal opinions
- Let's avoid flame wars (if a topic gets too hot, drop it because it
  only shows it's more personal style than common sense)
- Frequent clean up on the Wiki page(s) so the document can eventually
  be converted to XML.

Some topics (I know you'll come up with more):
- Common sense when programming (write for clarity, write for easy
  maintenance etc.)
- documentation (when, what to what extent)
- Naming of variables, methods etc. (not stuff like m_ prefixes)
- Exception throwing and handling
- Usage of interface vs. implementation
- Performance optimization (when, what, how)
- Where and what to log
- Links to other resources like the book "Code Complete" etc.

What do you think?


Jeremias Maerki
FOP committer