[equinox-dev] Coding standards: using import abc.* - or not?

[Oleg Besedin <obesedin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Everybody,
The Equinox coding standard says that
imports should be coalesced ("import abc.*") if 3 or more classes
are imported from the same package (http://www.eclipse.org/equinox/documents/coding.php).
However, this brings a rather real problem
that we just had a chance to observe. 

In this case a plugin was using:
        import
abc.*;
        import
myPackage.Assert;
Which was fine - until the Assert class
was added into the other plugin's package abc. 

Clearly, "import abc.*" introduces
ambiguity. On the other hand, Eclipse's "Organize Imports" command
lets developers easily manage individual imports. And, last but not least,
in my opinion, seeing all individual imports helps understand where imported
classes actually come from and adds to that nice warm feeling of being
in control. 

With all this in mind, should we change
the Equinox coding standard to don't coalesce the imports?

Sincerely,
Oleg Besedin