Documentation and Style
Documentation and Comments Programs should be self-documenting. Use meaningful variable names. Use indentation to show program structure. Use comments to explain what the program is doing.
Comments in Java Anything following a double slash (//) on a line is considered a comment, e.g., double radius; //in inches Anything between the symbols /* and */, no matter how many lines are included, is considered to be a comment, e.g., /* This is a comment */
Program Comment Header It’s good to put a comment header block at the beginning of each separately compilable piece of code. For example, for this class you might have a header like the following: /* Purpose: to determine the area of a circle Author: Jane Q. Programmer E-mail Address: jqprogrammer@csun.edu Programming Assignment: #3 Last Changed: January 6, 2006 */
Placement of Brackets and Indentation One convention for the placement of brackets was demonstrated in the code examples in Programming Project #1. A second convention is used in the textbook. In this approach the matching brackets are lined up in the same column. The code inside each set of brackets is indented.
Naming Constants Place the keywords public static final in front of the declaration setting the value of the constant, e.g., public static final int PI = 3.14159; By convention constants are named using all capital letters.