Is it new style or just lack of style?

[Quinn Dunkan]

On Fri, 3 Aug 2001 00:49:47 -0700, Danyel Fisher <danyelf at ics.uci.edu> wrote:
>In my Java class, lo those many years ago, we learned that we want
>spaces in that open style: foo( bar )
>http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~croft/research/java/guide/#format

Yes, but whoever wrote this page is obviously joking or insane:

'''
No non-space character will begin before the 6th column on a line; that is,
indent the entire file 5 spaces.
No non-whitespace character will begin beyond the 75th column on a line. 
'''

The code example:

'''
     public class  User implements Serializable
     //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
     //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
     {

     private String  userName;
     private String  password;
     private Date    creationDate;
'''

>http://www.javaranch.com/style.jsp#space
>    (which is nice enough to point out that this is a hybrid of practicality
>of the way that many text editors implement double-click-for-copy, and
>tradition)

Most of the editors I've used will select to the nearest matching paren or
quote when you double-click inside a paren or quote.  The rest don't consider
punctuation to be part of a word.

They also, with an apparently straight face, mandate "never use loop control
and return".  And then say to not use 'do ... while' because some programmers
might not know what it is.