General Coding Best Practices

• use Environment.NewLine instead of the string constant "\n"
• use Path.Combine() instead of string concatenation (with \ or /) to combine directory and file names
• use String.Join() instead of concatenating your strings manually
• throw and catch specific exceptions, don't catch generic exceptions try { ... } catch(Exception ex) {}
• use a finally block to make sure that the state of the program is consistent even when Exceptions are thrown
• if the mouse pointer was changed, set the mouse pointer back to normal in a finally {... } block
• use string.Empty instead of the string constant ""
• use string.IsEmptyOrNull(a) instead of if(a!=null && a!="")
• check for InvokeRequired in methods that manipulate GUI elements in controls
• instantiate all objects of classes implementing IDisposable with the using(...) { ... } statement to make sure the object is disposed correctly
• Types and the namespaces they are defined in should not be named similarly, e.g. HeuristicLab.Encodings.MyEncoding should not contain the equally named class MyEncoding.

Developing Operators

• When defining ValueParameters inside an operator also include a public property that allows get and set access to the parameter's Value property.
• Use interfaces instead of concrete classes (e.g. when implementing parameter properties expose an IValueParameter<T> instead of a ValueParameter<T>)
• Use ValueLookupParameter<T> for parameters that may also be defined in another higher level context such as problem or algorithm