Style Marking Guide

Formatting and appearance

• Inconsistent or unusual formatting conventions: -1 letter step
• Insufficient or grossly excessive use of white space: -1 letter step

Documentation

• Inadequate or excessive documentation: -1 letter step.  In general each logic block (loop, function, decision making statement, method and class definition should have it's own set of documentation).
• No documentation: -3 letter steps (i.e., one full letter grade)

Naming conventions for identifiers (variables, named constants, functions, procedures, new types)

• Poor naming conventions: -1 letter step for all cases (and not for each case)

Program design

• The program should be first divided into classes and then into the methods of each class.  Classes should encapsulate a logical set of attributes and methods.   Marks may be lost if this is not done properly e.g., writing a program with all or most of the program functions implemented by an all-powerful class: - 1 letter step for all cases (and not for each case).

Coding style

• Class definitions include static methods or static variables (constants are typically okay) without a reasonable justification: -1 letter steps
• Grossly inefficient program code (e.g., cutting and pasting statements rather than using a loop, declaring large variables inside loop bodies): -1 letter step

Use of a debugging tool e.g., a debugclass with a static attribute (required for A3 onwards, optional for A1 & A2 because it requires a good understanding of how static variables work).