What should be included in a C# Programming Standard?

Question

I've been tasked to write our department's C# Programming Standard (including guidelines). What sort of standards/guidelines should I include? I've already taken bits from various standards around the net (and pieces from Code Complete), but I'd like hear from developers in the field.

I've already got: Naming Conventions - General/Variables/Classes/Methods/Interfaces/Controls

General Programming Practices - Documentation (comments etc), [WIP]

OO Programming Practices - Encapsulation, [WIP]

What else would be useful? What shouldn't I include?

Answer 1

Have you already suggested that everyone reads the "Design Guidelines for Class Library Developers"? That covers the bulk of it. Other than that, I'd want to hammer home:

• You should very rarely be creating your own structs. Don't think of them as lightweight classes.
• Structs should never be mutable.
• Fields should always be private, apart from readonly fields where the type of the field is immutable
• Only attempt lock-free programming if you're sure that a simpler solution will be too slow - and have evidence!
• Readability is king
• Be aware of cultural issues - in particular, read Microsoft's String Handling Recommendations

I'll add more as I think of them...