In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:13:26 -0600, "Matthew D.
Fuller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
fullermd> On Fri, Dec 22, 2006 at 11:44:02PM +0100 I heard the voice of
fullermd> Rhialto, and lo! it spake thus:
fullermd> >
fullermd> > Once we settle on some layout, [...]
fullermd>
fullermd> Which we should move toward. The present situation is
fullermd> downright painful. The style is inconsistent in every way.
fullermd> The amount of cruft is staggering; what variables we declare
fullermd> where and in what scope, what functions are prototypes where
fullermd> (or at all)...
I generally agree. There's a lot of baggage, and I suspect some of it
comes all the way from twm itself.
fullermd> The following, I think, should not be contentious:
fullermd>
fullermd> - Tabs should not be used for alignment. See e.g. #define's
fullermd> and comments after lines in structure definitions in twm.h
fullermd> and other .h's. This goes all wonky with any tabstop
fullermd> except that of the person writing it. The only thing a
fullermd> tab is the same size as is a tab, so unless they happen at
fullermd> the beginning of the line in equal numbers, you can be
fullermd> assured that tabs will misalign somewhere.
I agree. To make it easy, we could add something similar to this (but
with C instead of C++ style comments) at the end of each file:
// Local Variables:
// mode: C++
// fill-column: 76
// c-file-style: "gnu"
// indent-tabs-mode: nil
// End:
// vim: et:sw=2:sts=2:ts=2:cino=>2s,{s,\:s,+s,t0,g0,^-2,e-2,n-2,p2s,(0,=s:
Now, there's no need for the GNU style specifically, although I happen
to like it, but I hope you catch my drift...
fullermd> - Single-line if()'s are the devil. I've used 'em in code
fullermd> before, but almost always for bad reasons.
Agreed.
fullermd> Similarly, cramming two statements on one line like
fullermd> "i = 0; j = 0;" is usually more hinderance than help.
Not sure I agree in all cases.
fullermd> - We have way too many lines that are way too long. Sub-80
fullermd> char! Going with that, comments at EOL are probably
fullermd> usually best put elsewhere.
I try to keep lines at sub-80, but there are cases where doing so
becomes butt ugly. Those are often better kept long.
fullermd> - Speaking of comments, we need a lot more of 'em. Except
fullermd> in the places where there are long comments embedded in
fullermd> the middle of statements, like in the if() a dozen lines
fullermd> into ChangeOccupation(). I'm hot on comments and vertical
fullermd> whitespace.
Yes, more well placed comments good! Anyone feeling like documenting
a piece of code somewhere with comments? By all the mighty gods,
don't let anything stop you!
fullermd> - We have too damn many global variables.
True, but they do serve a purpose.
fullermd> These are probably more so:
fullermd>
fullermd> - Indent with either 1 tab per level, or some number (2? 4?
fullermd> 3 maybe, to really mess with people mixing in tabs?) of
fullermd> spaces per level. No number of spaces should ever turn
fullermd> into a tab (see ci and pi flags in vim). That part at
fullermd> least shouldn't be too argumentative; it's which of the
fullermd> two that gets rough.
My preference is the GNU style or BSD KNF style with 4 spaces for
indentation.
For those wondering about the different styles, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indent_style
fullermd> - Spaces before args. "if (x)" and "foofunc (x)". I don't
fullermd> like 'em.
Well, I'd like to differenciate between statements (such as "if") and
functions. The former gets a space, the latter not. That goes along
with the BSD KNF style.
fullermd> - Braces. It seems like a majority (but not a large one) of
fullermd> the code K&R's it. I prefer Allman; I especially dislike
fullermd> the cuddled up "else if"'s you end up with in K&R...
I dunno, Allman's style always made me cringe... Now, what exactly is
wrong with "else if"? Can you show an example of what's so horrible
and how you would write it instead?
fullermd> Other random bits:
fullermd>
fullermd> - Multi-line alignment. I tend to align later lines where
fullermd> they 'belong' logically; up to the ( of function calls,
fullermd> and sometimes layers deeper on long many-parenthesized
fullermd> if()'s, except when that is "too far" over (where "too
fullermd> far" is interpreted on a variety of criteria), in which
fullermd> case I push them over 2 indentation levels (which
fullermd> distinguishes them well from inner blocks).
Agreed.
fullermd> - Underscores good. CamelCase bad.
I generally agree, except CamelCase seems to be the general X11
style. I've no problem adapting to that.
fullermd> - Defining functions with a newline before the function name
fullermd> sure does make finding stuff easier.
fullermd>
fullermd> void
fullermd> foobar(blah)
fullermd>
fullermd> not
fullermd>
fullermd> void foobar(blah)
The former is yet one of those things that make me cringe. I can't
see how it's hard to search the latter...
fullermd> - Implicit comparisons as boolean (e.g., "if(x)" instead of
fullermd> "if(x!=NULL)" and equivalents for numerics) bad.
Why?
fullermd> - I don't like multi-line comments that start on their first
fullermd> line...
Why?
fullermd> - Urg, there are array references with spaces before the [
fullermd> too. And some function calls with MANY spaces before the
fullermd> (; see workmgr.c around line 1700.
Agreed.
fullermd> - We should probably have less commented out code. Unless
fullermd> it's clarifying something, or commented out rather short
fullermd> term... well, we've got a VCS after all. That's what
fullermd> it's for.
I assume you're not talking about conditional code...
fullermd> And other stuff that I've managed to put out of mind,
fullermd> probably. We should hash out the One True Ctwm Style and be
fullermd> done with it, so we can use it for new code and convert
fullermd> existing code as we're messing with it.
Agreed. I suggest starting to write a file HACKING and tweak it until
we're all agreeing enough.
Cheers,
Richard
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Richard Levitte [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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