Basic Contribution Requirements

[codeconsole]

Code Format

In the Grails Core module:

if()

occurs 1529 times vs

if (

occurs 6502 times.

I always remember back in the day at the University, my professor would say... if is not a function; therefore, it should be formatted accordingly.

Code formatting should not be left to personal preference. Fortunately, a great deal of time and effort has been invested by others to establish good practices on how to properly format code, enhancing its readability and promoting consistency throughout the codebase.

Some good starting points are:
https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/codeconventions-contents.html (With the exception of line wrapping as screen widths have changed)

https://google.github.io/styleguide/javaguide.html](https://google.github.io/styleguide/javaguide.html

I recommend we start with consistent bracing and horizontal whitespace

[amondel2]

I created the following configuration file to have a more concrete discussion on what settings we should use, I think we can create three different exports. Their was a proposal to add .editorconfig to start standardizing on a consistent code style to help with the diffs on merging. However, when I looked at the import options in IntelliJ I only saw the following

Generally I go with removing spaces, but I think braces really help with readability. In a bunch of places I proposed only wrapping if long, but I think we need some discussion on what format makes the most sense.

Please note the txt version and XML should be the same and they were modified so it could be uploaded to github.
Grails_Style_Prop.xml.zip
Grails_Style_Prop_AS_TXT.txt

[codeconsole]

Can you define "removing spaces", are you suggesting tabs?

Since we are heavily committed to Spring, I recommend we also align our code style equivalently.
Spring Framework Code-Style

These standards are heavily adopted by Spring, Google, and are also the standard for the programming in the Java Language.

Those specifications require braces to be K&R style.
And proper spacing around any reserved word.

[amondel2]

I am not suggesting tabs; I meant spaces in between parentheses. However, I don't have a strong opinion on this, other than it being consistent across the codebase. The only code style I have a strong preference for is not putting else, catch, etc., on a new line but rather keeping them on the same line with a brace, as demonstrated in section 4.1.2 Nonempty blocks: K & R style . This seems different from what is in the Spring Framework Code Style, so I am fine setting up the configuration that aligns with the Spring style, as long as the rest of the community agrees that it is the best path forward.

[jamesfredley]

Examples of Grails and adjacent projects which are enforcing style rules:

grails-forge uses checkstyle: https://github.com/grails/grails-forge/tree/7.0.x/config/checkstyle

webdriver-binaries-gradle-plugin uses codenarc: https://github.com/erdi/webdriver-binaries-gradle-plugin/tree/master/gradle/codenarc

[codeconsole]

Spring Security automates the entire process and has a format gradle plugin where it will automatically format your code according to their specifications so not changes are actually required by the developer.

If they do not format according to spec, the build fails and the PR is rejected.

We should just attempt to use the same plugin and see if it formatting works for Groovy and it is acceptable.

They also have a required IntelliJ plugin. "Plugin 'CheckStyle-IDEA' required for 'spring-security' project isn't installed."

[amondel2]

I finally had a few minutes to get back to this. The plugin that @codeconsole mentioned in the previous post is a tool for formatting Java code. It’s called spring-javaformat and is developed by the Spring team.

Someone asked about Groovy support, but it looks like they don’t plan to add it.

I also came across another promising tool: Spotless. I might try it out. If anyone is currently using something for Groovy formatting, I’d love to hear your recommendations!

[jamesfredley]

https://github.com/grails/grails-forge/tree/7.0.x/config is also using spotless, currently.

[erickinsella]

I also agree that having a set of formatting standards is more important than their specificity. An easy way to automate the standards when committing would be "a nice to have" IMO.

During a recent Grails Planning meeting there was a discussion about whether formatting would happen all at once per repo or as files changed. I'm not sure where that discussion ended up.