Java Coding Style

java.net blogger Malcom Davis comments on why you should use the Sun Java coding style. The first comment is the perfect example of “ego” that he talks about:

Why not adopt the Sun coding conventions? Simple – because they are derived from an antiquated and BAD way of coding.
There are very good reasons why C programmers moved away from the coding styles used by Sun, and the excuse that ‘modern IDEs have code colouring and brace matcing, etc.’ is NOT a good reason to have to rely on it. Gah! Could there be a more reactionary, inflammatory and unsubstantiated comment? How does the poster know what the Java coding convention was derived from. What makes it “bad”? Why is an antiquated coding style not a good thing? Why exactly did C programmers move away from the coding styles used by Sun? What evidence is there that C programmers actually did start of such a coding style and move away from it? What problem does code colouring and brace matching supposedly not overcome? In other words, why should I believe some random comment on a web page which provides no solid argument, no reasoning, no attempt at justification and absolutely no facts? As Malcom noted:

It�s interesting how much an ego can get in the way of being a better programmer. Indeed.