Key Points

• The first priority of visual layout is to illuminate the logical organization of the code. Criteria used to assess whether that priority is achieved include accuracy, consistency, readability, and maintainability.

• Looking good is secondary to the other criteria a distant second. If the other criteria are met and the underlying code is good, however, the layout will look fine.

• Visual Basic has pure blocks and the conventional practice in Java is to use pureblock style, so you can use a pure-block layout if you program in those languages. In C++, either pure-block emulation or begin-end block boundaries work well.

• Structuring code is important for its own sake. The specific convention you follow is less important than the fact that you follow some convention consistently. A layout convention that's followed inconsistently can actually hurt readability.

• Many aspects of layout are religious issues. Try to separate objective preferences from subjective ones. Use explicit criteria to help ground your discussions about style preferences.