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<!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD Documentation V1.1//EN" "../dtd/document-v11.dtd">

<document>
 <header>
  <title>POI Resoluton</title>
  <subtitle>Resolution 001 - Minimal Coding Standards</subtitle>
  <authors>
   <person name="Andrew C. Oliver" email="acoliver@apache.org"/>
  </authors>
 </header>

 <body>
 <section><title>Resolution 001 - Minimal Coding Standards</title>
        <section><title>Majority Position</title>
                <p>
                        As the POI project has grown the "styles" used have become more
                        varied, some see this as a bad thing, but in reality it
                        can be a good thing.  Each can learn from the different
                        styles by working with different code.  That being said
                        there are some universal "good quality" guidelines that
                        must be adopted on a project of any proportions.
                </p>
                <p>
                        Marc Johnson Authored the following resolution:
                </p>
                <p>
                On Tue, 2002-01-08 at 22:23, Marc Johnson wrote:
                Standards are wonderful; everyone should have a set.
                Here's what I propose for coding standards for POI WRT comments (should I
                feel the need, I'll post more of these little gems):
                </p>
                <ol>
                        <li>
                        All classes and interfaces MUST have, right at the 
                        beginning of the file, the Apache Software License
                        2.0 License Header. (see /legal/LICENSE).
                        </li>
                        <li>
                        All classes and interfaces MUST include class javadoc. Conventionally,
                        this goes after the package and imports, and before the start of the class
                        or interface. The class javadoc MUST have at least one @author tag
                        </li>
                        <li>
                        All methods that are accessible outside the class MUST have javadoc
                        comments. In other words, if it isn't private, it MUST have javadoc
                        comments. Simple getters can consist of a simple @return tag; simple setters
                        can consist of a simple @param tag. Anything else requires some verbiage
                        plus all the standard javadoc tags as appropriate. You MUST include @throws
                        or @exception for any non-runtime exceptions, and you SHOULD document any
                        runtime exceptions you expect to throw. @throws/@exception tags SHOULD
                        include an explanation of why that exception would be thrown. If your method
                        might return null, you MUST say so. An accompanying explanation of the
                        circumstances for doing so would be nice.
                        </li>
                </ol>
        </section>
        <section><title>Amendments (informal by extension and not by vote)</title>
            <section><title>License</title>
                <p>
                        As opposed to the formerly used POI License (which was
                        based on the Apache Public License), now that POI is 
                        part of Apache, use the standard Apache Software
                        License 2.0 header.  As per standard Apache Software 
                        Foundation policy, the full (long) version of the
                        header should be used.
                </p>
            </section>
            <section><title>2 cents</title>
                 <p>
                       Tip:  No laughing or joking allowed in conversations regarding coding
                       standards.
                       Any mail on coding standards will be treated very seriously,
                       and sent here with a RTFM.
                </p>
            </section>
        </section>
        <section><title>Dissent</title>
                <p>
                        The motion was passed unanimously with no negative or
                        neutral votes.
                </p>
        </section>
        <section><title>Comments</title>
                <p>
                        Andy didn't feel like going through his mail and sucking
                        out the comments..  If there is anything you feel should
                        be added here do it yourself ;-).
                </p>
        </section>
  </section>
 </body>
</document>
