I do agree that more complete coding guidelines (objects vs. arrays, when to pass what, optimal way to check for variable existence, etc.) are a good idea.
Per issue patches.
1. Identify a problematic practice. 2. Fix all occurances of this single practice. 3. Submit a patch for the code. 4. Submit a patch for the coding guidelines.
*. Iterate from (1) with another problematic practice.
It is much easier to focus on one problematic practice, when creating and reviewing patches.
I agree, generally, but fix to what? We should decide whether we're going to standardize on is_null() or === NULL before we start writing patches to always use one or the other, for instance.
Yes, this is why it helps if you pick and show us a problem (either in the form of a patch, or in the form of a discussion), and then we decide on the proper way, and get the patch committed. The answer to "fix to what" is to fix bugs, where Drupal is not E_ALL compatible. In the particular example, is_null() and === NULL are used in different ways (ie. sometimes values are explicitly set to null, sometimes unset, sometimes not set at all). These might be different cases, depending on how code is written for them in Drupal. Someone who does run Drupal on E_ALL can identify the different places and cases. Goba