AmbySoft Inc. Coding Standards for Java

Whenever I start working with a new language one of the first things that I try to do is determine what coding standards and guidelines for that language exist. When I first started working with Java in the Autumn of 1995 I couldn’t find any. When I went looking again a year later I found some, but they weren’t sufficient for my needs. The information that I found was fairly good, for the most part, but some of it was contradictory and none of it was complete. Furthermore, some of the papers were not based on sound software engineering principles, but were instead oriented towards banging out code very quickly.

Because I believe in writing code that is easy to understand, to maintain, and to enhance I decided that I needed to put together a standards and guidelines document for Java coding. I also decided to share it with you, so here it is in its entirety for you to download.

You may also find my Coding Style Guidelines article to be of interest.

Suggested Reading for Java Developers

This white paper forms part of the basis for The Elements of Java Style which I co-authored with six senior developers from Rogue Wave. It is pocket-book size and 140 pages long, the perfect book to distribute to anyone on your team interested in writing top-quality Java code. For more information…