CSCI 134
Introduction to Computer Science
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Lab Style Guide
The way you present your program is just as important as having a
correct program. While having good comments or good variable names
will not affect the correctness of your program, it will make it
easier to read your program. It is important that others be able to
understand your code so that they can modify your code if they have
to. A significant component of your lab grade will be determined by your programming
style.
This is a guide to help you better understand what we are looking for
when we look at your labs. As the semester progresses there will be
steeper penalties for styling mistakes. So, get into the habit of
writing good labs from the beginning. After writing your lab be sure
to look over your code and your style.
Commenting
Comments are extremely important. Take some care to write accurate yet concise comments.
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Blank Lines
Blank lines are used to delineate different areas of the code. The instance variable declarations at the top of your program should be separated from the header of the class and the header of the first method. There should always be a blank line between methods. It is advisable to break up long method bodies and long declarations into logical pieces. Always start a new line after a semicolon.
Naming Literals
Do not use magic numbers in your method bodies. A magic number is a numeric constant embedded in code, without a constant definition. Any number except -1, 0, 1, and 2 should probably have a name that gives the number meaning. For example, rather than writing
toServer = new NetConnection( serverName, 80 );
associate a final instance variable with the number:
private final int WEB_PORT = 80;
and use that variable in place of the number:
toServer = new NetConnection( serverName, WEB_PORT );
Names
You should always choose names that suggest the meanings of the things being named. If the purpose of a method is to remove all the blanks from a string, then a good name for that method is removeBlanks. If there is a variable of type int that is used to refer to the total number of message that have been sent, then a good name would be messagesSent or messageCount.
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Format
Your program should be formatted as neatly as possible. The statements and declarations placed in a method's body should be indented about 4 spaces more than the method's header. Similarly, the bodies of while loops, and if statements should be indented slightly compared to the headers of these constructs. Sequences of statements that do not contain if statements, while loops or other control constructs should all be indented by the same amount.