Coding Style

Done from scratch to note choices done so far instead of copying and modifying after it. This just denotes my preferred coding style but the most important is for a project’s code to be consistent.

And this applies to all programming languages that I use, even if I’ll use C vocabulary when applicable, implementation of it is done in my .clang-format dot-file.

Recommended Reading

The following contain good information, some of which is repeated below, some of which is contradicted below.

• http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/pikestyle
• https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/CodingStyle
• http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi/OpenBSD-current/man9/style.9?query=style&sec=9

Choices

• Tabs for indentation; space for alignment
• C braces break style: Allman when it’s for grouping (ie. C if-else blocks), K&R when the braces are mandatory (ie. C function definition)
• When using includes or similar, have them sorted (so there is deduplication) and grouped at the start of the file
• Line-lenght:
  • Code: 80 soft-limit, 100 hard-limit
  • Text: 80 hard-limit, expect when non-breakable (like URLs)
• Compacting: do it if it fits the soft-limit
• main function is defined at the end of the file and functions are grouped by topic, preferably by reversed-order of execution (scripting languages habit).
• Functions to be used outside of their defining file should be put in a header. Make them private otherwise. This allows a clean and well-documented API.
• Documentation is mandatory for the API and must be reachable to where they are used. (ie. external for commands/networking, internal for functions)
• Design with extensibility in mind (so avoid booleans, test against sucess rather than error, structs are friends, …)