ref: b335b29a98bf2f86fb66a385e913d5e013317e2a
dir: /HACKING/
Coding style guidelines
=======================
The coding style guidelines for Chocolate Doom are designed to keep the
style of the original source code. This maintains consistency throughout
the program, and does not require the original code to be changed. Some
of these guidelines are stricter than what was done in the original
source; follow these when writing new code only: there is no need to
change existing code to fit them.
You should set tabs to _display_ as eight spaces, not four. However,
_indentation_ should be four spaces. If possible, do not use tab
characters at all. There is a utility called "expand" which will remove
tab characters. For the reasoning behind this, see:
http://www.jwz.org/doc/tabs-vs-spaces.html
Please write code to an 80 column limit so that it fits within a standard
80 column terminal.
Functions should be named like this: 'AB_FunctionName'. The 'AB' prefix
denotes the subsystem (AM_ for automap, G_ for game, etc). If a
function is static, you can omit the prefix and just name it like
'FunctionName'. Functions and global variables should always be made
static if possible.
Put '_t' on the end of types created with typedef. Type names like this
should be all lowercase and have the subsystem name at the start. An
example of this is 'txt_window_t'. When creating structures, always
typedef them.
Do not use Hungarian notation.
Do not use the goto statement.
Use C++-style comments, ie. '//' comments, not '/* ... */' comments.
I don't care that this isn't standard ANSI C.
Variables should be named like this: 'my_variable_name', not like this:
'MyVariableName'. In pointer variable declarations, place the '*' next
to the variable name, not the type.
When using an if, do, while, or for statement, always use the { } braces
even when they are not necessary. For example, do this:
if (condition)
{
body;
}
Not this:
if (condition) // NO
body;
Write code like this:
typedef struct
{
int member1;
char *member2;
} my_structure_t;
void FunctionName(int argument, int arg2, int arg3, int arg4, int arg5,
int arg6, int arg7)
{
if (condition)
{
body;
}
else if (condition)
{
body;
}
else
{
body;
}
if (very_long_condition_like_this_one_that_forces_a_line_break
&& other_condition)
{
body;
}
switch (argument)
{
case FIRST:
code;
break;
case SECOND:
code;
break;
default:
break;
}
for (a=0; a<10; ++a)
{
loop_body;
}
while (a < 10)
{
loop_body;
}
do
{
} while (condition);
}
Portability
===========
Chocolate Doom is designed to be cross-platform and work on different
Operating Systems and processors. Bear this in mind when writing code.
Do not use the long type (its size differs across platforms; use
int or int64_t depending on which you want).
Use Doom's byte data type for byte data. 'int' is assumed to be a
32-bit integer, and 'short' is a 16-bit integer. You can also use the
ISO C99 data types: intN_t and uintN_t where N is 8,16,32,64.
Be careful with platform dependencies: do not use Windows API
functions, for example. Use SDL where possible.
Preprocessor #defines are set that can be used to identify the OS
if necessary: _WIN32 for Windows and __MACOSX__ for MacOS X. Others
are set through SDL. Try to avoid this if possible.
Be careful of endianness! Doom has SHORT() and LONG() macros that
do endianness conversion. Never assume that integer types have a
particular byte ordering. Similarly, never assume that fields
inside a structure are aligned in a particular way. This is most
relevant when reading or writing data to a file or a network pipe.
For signed integers, you shouldn't assume that (i >> n) is the same as
(i / (1 << n)). However, most processors handle bitshifts of signed
integers properly, so it's not a huge problem.
GNU GPL and licensing
=====================
All code submitted to the project must be licensed under the GNU GPL or a
compatible license. If you use code that you haven't 100% written
yourself, say so. Add a copyright header to the start of every file. Use
this template:
// Emacs style mode select -*- C++ -*-
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
//
// Copyright(C) YEAR Author's name
//
// This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
// modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
// as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
// of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
//
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
// GNU General Public License for more details.
//
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
// along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
// Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA
// 02111-1307, USA.