Hi Walter,

Interesting. Here are my thoughts:

The most important thing is readability. Anything that helps this is useful. Since the bulk of the cost associated with any system is in maintenance and modification, the easier it is to read, the easier it is to maintain and modify. I have heard (not here, but from other programmers), "Well, I can read it." To me this is the height of arrogance. We don't indulge in these conventions for our own benefit. They are used for the benefit of anyone else who may inherit our work at a later date.

Personally, I maintain a very strict set of coding standards because of this. I won't go into them now, because it's a pretty lengthy list. If prompted, I'll be glad to post them, however.