Hi. I am planning on
SCJD, and I am gathering information. My doubt is on code conventions. I am reading Sierra & Bates bonus CD material on SCJD, and one whole chapter is dedicated to coding conventions. For example, they (official
Java conventions) that all local variables in a method should be separated with a blank line from the rest of the code. But, I have read on other places that it is good practise to declare variables when they are first used / necessary, which is not neccessarily at the top of the method.
The question is: how strictly should I comply with the standard conventions? I do have quite some Java experience, and my conventions are not always the same as the official ones (but very similar, with a few exceptions), but then again, I don't want to loose point on such a trivial thing. Is it really so important to use the standard conventions?