Code Craft

House Styles (and Where to Stick Them)

Many software companies have an internal (house ) coding style that defines, among other things, its code presentation rules. But why bother—code that’s been written in any good style is easy to read and maintain. If no one will have a hard time following it, do we really need this extra level of bureaucracy?

House styles are important and useful for a number of reasons. If everyone sings from the same hymn book (perhaps that should be writes on the same hymn book), then all source code will be consistent and homogenized. What value does this bring? It increases the code quality and makes software development safer. Here’s how:

• Any code released outside the organization will be neatly presented and coherent, ...