diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'abs/core-testing/wlan-ng26-utils/tmp/trunk/doc/codingstd/.svn/text-base/linux.CodingStyle.svn-base')
| -rw-r--r-- | abs/core-testing/wlan-ng26-utils/tmp/trunk/doc/codingstd/.svn/text-base/linux.CodingStyle.svn-base | 212 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 212 deletions
diff --git a/abs/core-testing/wlan-ng26-utils/tmp/trunk/doc/codingstd/.svn/text-base/linux.CodingStyle.svn-base b/abs/core-testing/wlan-ng26-utils/tmp/trunk/doc/codingstd/.svn/text-base/linux.CodingStyle.svn-base deleted file mode 100644 index edba246..0000000 --- a/abs/core-testing/wlan-ng26-utils/tmp/trunk/doc/codingstd/.svn/text-base/linux.CodingStyle.svn-base +++ /dev/null @@ -1,212 +0,0 @@ - - Linux kernel coding style - -This is a short document describing the preferred coding style for the -linux kernel. Coding style is very personal, and I won't _force_ my -views on anybody, but this is what goes for anything that I have to be -able to maintain, and I'd prefer it for most other things too. Please -at least consider the points made here. - -First off, I'd suggest printing out a copy of the GNU coding standards, -and NOT read it. Burn them, it's a great symbolic gesture. - -Anyway, here goes: - - - Chapter 1: Indentation - -Tabs are 8 characters, and thus indentations are also 8 characters. -There are heretic movements that try to make indentations 4 (or even 2!) -characters deep, and that is akin to trying to define the value of PI to -be 3. - -Rationale: The whole idea behind indentation is to clearly define where -a block of control starts and ends. Especially when you've been looking -at your screen for 20 straight hours, you'll find it a lot easier to see -how the indentation works if you have large indentations. - -Now, some people will claim that having 8-character indentations makes -the code move too far to the right, and makes it hard to read on a -80-character terminal screen. The answer to that is that if you need -more than 3 levels of indentation, you're screwed anyway, and should fix -your program. - -In short, 8-char indents make things easier to read, and have the added -benefit of warning you when you're nesting your functions too deep. -Heed that warning. - - - Chapter 2: Placing Braces - -The other issue that always comes up in C styling is the placement of -braces. Unlike the indent size, there are few technical reasons to -choose one placement strategy over the other, but the preferred way, as -shown to us by the prophets Kernighan and Ritchie, is to put the opening -brace last on the line, and put the closing brace first, thusly: - - if (x is true) { - we do y - } - -However, there is one special case, namely functions: they have the -opening brace at the beginning of the next line, thus: - - int function(int x) - { - body of function - } - -Heretic people all over the world have claimed that this inconsistency -is ... well ... inconsistent, but all right-thinking people know that -(a) K&R are _right_ and (b) K&R are right. Besides, functions are -special anyway (you can't nest them in C). - -Note that the closing brace is empty on a line of its own, _except_ in -the cases where it is followed by a continuation of the same statement, -ie a "while" in a do-statement or an "else" in an if-statement, like -this: - - do { - body of do-loop - } while (condition); - -and - - if (x == y) { - .. - } else if (x > y) { - ... - } else { - .... - } - -Rationale: K&R. - -Also, note that this brace-placement also minimizes the number of empty -(or almost empty) lines, without any loss of readability. Thus, as the -supply of new-lines on your screen is not a renewable resource (think -25-line terminal screens here), you have more empty lines to put -comments on. - - - Chapter 3: Naming - -C is a Spartan language, and so should your naming be. Unlike Modula-2 -and Pascal programmers, C programmers do not use cute names like -ThisVariableIsATemporaryCounter. A C programmer would call that -variable "tmp", which is much easier to write, and not the least more -difficult to understand. - -HOWEVER, while mixed-case names are frowned upon, descriptive names for -global variables are a must. To call a global function "foo" is a -shooting offense. - -GLOBAL variables (to be used only if you _really_ need them) need to -have descriptive names, as do global functions. If you have a function -that counts the number of active users, you should call that -"count_active_users()" or similar, you should _not_ call it "cntusr()". - -Encoding the type of a function into the name (so-called Hungarian -notation) is brain damaged - the compiler knows the types anyway and can -check those, and it only confuses the programmer. No wonder MicroSoft -makes buggy programs. - -LOCAL variable names should be short, and to the point. If you have -some random integer loop counter, it should probably be called "i". -Calling it "loop_counter" is non-productive, if there is no chance of it -being mis-understood. Similarly, "tmp" can be just about any type of -variable that is used to hold a temporary value. - -If you are afraid to mix up your local variable names, you have another -problem, which is called the function-growth-hormone-imbalance syndrome. -See next chapter. - - - Chapter 4: Functions - -Functions should be short and sweet, and do just one thing. They should -fit on one or two screenfuls of text (the ISO/ANSI screen size is 80x24, -as we all know), and do one thing and do that well. - -The maximum length of a function is inversely proportional to the -complexity and indentation level of that function. So, if you have a -conceptually simple function that is just one long (but simple) -case-statement, where you have to do lots of small things for a lot of -different cases, it's OK to have a longer function. - -However, if you have a complex function, and you suspect that a -less-than-gifted first-year high-school student might not even -understand what the function is all about, you should adhere to the -maximum limits all the more closely. Use helper functions with -descriptive names (you can ask the compiler to in-line them if you think -it's performance-critical, and it will probably do a better job of it -that you would have done). - -Another measure of the function is the number of local variables. They -shouldn't exceed 5-10, or you're doing something wrong. Re-think the -function, and split it into smaller pieces. A human brain can -generally easily keep track of about 7 different things, anything more -and it gets confused. You know you're brilliant, but maybe you'd like -to understand what you did 2 weeks from now. - - - Chapter 5: Commenting - -Comments are good, but there is also a danger of over-commenting. NEVER -try to explain HOW your code works in a comment: it's much better to -write the code so that the _working_ is obvious, and it's a waste of -time to explain badly written code. - -Generally, you want your comments to tell WHAT your code does, not HOW. -Also, try to avoid putting comments inside a function body: if the -function is so complex that you need to separately comment parts of it, -you should probably go back to chapter 4 for a while. You can make -small comments to note or warn about something particularly clever (or -ugly), but try to avoid excess. Instead, put the comments at the head -of the function, telling people what it does, and possibly WHY it does -it. - - - Chapter 6: You've made a mess of it - -That's OK, we all do. You've probably been told by your long-time Unix -user helper that "GNU emacs" automatically formats the C sources for -you, and you've noticed that yes, it does do that, but the defaults it -uses are less than desirable (in fact, they are worse than random -typing - a infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never -make a good program). - -So, you can either get rid of GNU emacs, or change it to use saner -values. To do the latter, you can stick the following in your .emacs file: - -(defun linux-c-mode () - "C mode with adjusted defaults for use with the Linux kernel." - (interactive) - (c-mode) - (c-set-style "K&R") - (setq c-basic-offset 8)) - -This will define the M-x linux-c-mode command. When hacking on a -module, if you put the string -*- linux-c -*- somewhere on the first -two lines, this mode will be automatically invoked. Also, you may want -to add - -(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("/usr/src/linux.*/.*\\.[ch]$" . linux-c-mode) - auto-mode-alist)) - -to your .emacs file if you want to have linux-c-mode switched on -automagically when you edit source files under /usr/src/linux. - -But even if you fail in getting emacs to do sane formatting, not -everything is lost: use "indent". - -Now, again, GNU indent has the same brain dead settings that GNU emacs -has, which is why you need to give it a few command line options. -However, that's not too bad, because even the makers of GNU indent -recognize the authority of K&R (the GNU people aren't evil, they are -just severely misguided in this matter), so you just give indent the -options "-kr -i8" (stands for "K&R, 8 character indents"). - -"indent" has a lot of options, and especially when it comes to comment -re-formatting you may want to take a look at the manual page. But -remember: "indent" is not a fix for bad programming. |