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What do you guys think of forced linters (checkStyle) on java assignments?

At this University we have a submission system that checks for your code where if a line didn't match the coding specification then it's an instant zero.

Being experienced in programming before going to a university, this somewhat surprised me, it also has unit tests implemented in it where it checks against input and output.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Is it too much for people who unlike me never seen code before? Or let them have hell and understand how to deal with it? I personally think it's too much for beginners.

Comments
  • 2
    I’ve used what sounds like the exact same system at my university but fortunately we were able to turn things in over and over before the deadline so we could correct things and get full points. The forced coding style was annoying because it used odd spacing that was unconventional from any project I had seen in my five years of java development.

    In the end I just kept adjusting the things it called out then used proper conventions in real life. It is stupid that this is how they teach new students though.

    Edit: I think it was called webcat.
  • 1
    A friend had a machine learning assignment in java and had to use weka. I'm not familiar with it but the classnames are insanely long, just like my pen is.
    The style checker disallowed lines bigger than 80 chars so many variable declarations had to be split into two lines. I guess style checking has its advantages but if you don't adapt it to your environment it's worse than useless.
  • 1
    Forced checkstyles can go suck my hairy balls, there is a standard built into ides forna fucking reason
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