The first priority of visual layout is to illuminate the logical organization of the code. Criteria used to assess whether that priority is achieved include accuracy, consistency, readability, and maintainability.

Looking good is secondary to the other criteria—a distant second. If the other criteria are met and the underlying code is good, however, the layout will look fine.

Visual Basic has pure blocks and the conventional practice in Java is to use pureblock style, so you can use a pure-block layout if you program in those languages. In C++, either pure-block emulation or begin-end block boundaries work well.

Structuring code is important for its own sake. The specific convention you follow is less important than the fact that you follow some convention consistently. A layout convention that's followed inconsistently can actually hurt readability.

Many aspects of layout are religious issues. Try to separate objective preferences from subjective ones. Use explicit criteria to help ground your discussions about style preferences.