Coding conventions

Formatting

• Always put a space before and after a binary selector, as well as inside blocks.
• Properly indent your code using tabs, not spaces (the current IDE makes it difficult, we're not picky there).
• No unnecessary parenthesis.
• No unnecessary blank lines, expect after the method comment, temps declaration, or 'guard' statements, such as shouldReturn ifTrue: [ ^ self ]..
• Always use yourself in cascades.
• Use each as an argument name of iteration blocks.
• Add a space at the beginning and end of a temporary variable declarations and blocks.
• Avoid unnecessary statement separators.
• Close multiple blocks on one line, exception can be made for #ensure: and #on:do: blocks
• Keep methods as short as possible (up to ~5 lines is ok).

Method protocols

• Private methods go to the 'private' protocol
• Initialization methods go to the 'initialization' protocol
• Accessing methods go to the 'accessing' protocol
• Error methods go to the 'error handling' protocol

Comments

• The first comment of a method should state the use of the method. Keep it short, but ensure that these are valid sentences starting with an uppercase letter and end with a full stop.
• Avoid comments within the method body when not needed or intention revealing.
• Class comments are mandatory
• Referring to Github issues is OK in method comments, but not in class comments.

Initialization

• #initialize should always send super initialize

(This page is freely adapted from Seaside coding conventions