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  <mainDescription>&lt;p>&#xD;
    Using a coding standard is a widely accepted software development practice. The need for this practice takes on added&#xD;
    importance in a highly collaborative environment. The team should have a standard way of naming and formatting things&#xD;
    so they can understand the code quickly and know where to look at all times. This enables shared code ownership since&#xD;
    any team member should be able to quickly understand the code written by others.&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    Ideally, the coding standard should be the result of team consensus. Involving the team members will aid adoption of&#xD;
    the standards.&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    Coding Standards cover such areas as:&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;ul>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        Naming standards. This includes the naming of elements all the way down to the smallest variable. In covering&#xD;
        larger-scale elements, this overlaps into what could be considered design standards.&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        File organization. This includes file naming conventions and how the files will be organized on the file system.&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        Comment standards. Too much emphasis on comments implies a lack of confidence that readable code is being written,&#xD;
        plus there is always a concern that the comments are not up to date. Yet, a consistent approach to comments&#xD;
        improves understandability and can support the ability to generate documentation from the code.&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        Coding conventions. Consistent application of specific code-level conventions and the exclusion of some considered&#xD;
        poor form improve the quality of the code.&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        White space. Though it can be argued to be less critical than the other items listed here, a consistent usage of&#xD;
        white space as indentation and blank lines also improves readability.&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
&lt;/ul>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    In some cases, decisions will be arbitrary (like how much to indent). Each item in the standard should support one or&#xD;
    more goals, improved communication being one of the most critical goals. Once the team agrees on a standard, all&#xD;
    members of the teams are expected to follow it. With time, the team will use and modify the standard to develop a style&#xD;
    that is well adapted to the environment.&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    Though some standards can transcend any language, coding standards must be language specific for the most part.&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    For example coding standards, see the &lt;a href=&quot;http://java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/html/CodeConvTOC.doc.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;>Code Conventions for the JavaTM Programming Language&lt;/a> or these &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/articles/361363.aspx&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;>Internal Coding Guidelines&lt;/a> for .NET&#xD;
    development.&#xD;
&lt;/p></mainDescription>
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