Coding Guidelines

This is a small overview of guidelines regarding new and changed code.

Code style and conventions

All new and changed code must adhere to the Java Code Conventions from Oracle.
Use exactly 4 spaces (no tabs) per level of indentation.
We reserve to be lenient with existing code and arbitrary restrictions regarding row and column counts.

Use your IDE's formatter liberally and regularly. A code style file for IntelliJ exists and matches our preferred style.

Do's and Don'ts

Meaning of Importance categorization:

• Must: This guideline has to be adhered to in any new and changed code. No merge is allowed to be accepted with violations to these guidelines.
• Should: You are encouraged to adhere to these guidelines. If you don't adhere to the guidelines, add a comment why this is the case. No merge is allowed to be accepted with violations to these guidelines unless they are accompanied by a valid comment.

Category	Importance	What	Example
Modern Language Feature	Must	Use lambdas instead of anonymous classes. This improves readability and maintainability	Use () -> {} instead of new Runnable() { ... }
Modern Language Feature	Should	Use functional built-in types for lambdas and functional expressions instead of custom counterparts. There are numerous classes that have direct built-in variants in Java	Use Consumer<T> instead of Runnabled<T>
Resource Leak	Must	Use try-with-resources when using implementations of AutoClosable that are closed right after using them. This prevents resource leaks and ensures that all resources are returned to the operating system cleanly.	try(BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(path))){ ... }
Logical Operators	Must	When dealing with logical expressions use the logical operators (or), && (and). This allows for short-circuiting and performance improvements.	if(true false) { ... }