C++Talk.NET C++ language newsgroups   Archives   FAQ   Search   Memberlist   Usergroups   Register   Profile   Log in to check your private messages   Log in  Coding guidelines/Notation          C++Talk.NET Forum Index -> C++ Language (Moderated) View previous topic :: View next topic   Author Message Iguana Guest Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 9:19 pm    Post subject: Coding guidelines/Notation A few questions, is there a most commonly used hungarian notation that everyone uses (or similar notation)? Secondly, I've read a few coding guidelines, but none really seem to hit home with me (I don't really agree with some of the things they're saying with respect to readability). Is there a "Top 10 Coding Guidelines" list, or somewhere where I can find a standardized (or similar) guideline? Lastly, I'm getting the idea that layout is mostly down to the coder, after you take things like readability into account. Is this reasonably accurate? Thanks, Iguana [ See http://www.gotw.ca/resources/clcm.htm for info about ] [ comp.lang.c++.moderated. First time posters: Do this! ] Back to top Jack Klein Guest Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:58 am    Post subject: Re: Coding guidelines/Notation On 19 Jan 2005 16:19:48 -0500, Iguana <hairnet (AT) f2s (DOT) com> wrote in comp.lang.c++.moderated: Quote: A few questions, is there a most commonly used hungarian notation that everyone uses (or similar notation)? No, "Hungarian" notation is a dead issue. Quote: Secondly, I've read a few coding guidelines, but none really seem to hit home with me (I don't really agree with some of the things they're saying with respect to readability). Is there a "Top 10 Coding Guidelines" list, or somewhere where I can find a standardized (or similar) guideline? Can't help. Quote: Lastly, I'm getting the idea that layout is mostly down to the coder, after you take things like readability into account. Is this reasonably accurate? No, unless you are talking about a single programmer working in complete isolation. Any organization committed to quality software has code inspections, and has mandatory guidelines for layout so inspection time is not wasted by constantly adjusting from one programmer's "style" to the other's. One of the things that keeps software development in its infancy, with the terrible track record that it has, is that prima donna programmers have convinced undereducated managers that things like layout, naming rules, and quite a few other things are "style" issues that should be left to the individual programmer. Any organization that has a clue has specific coding requirements, and programmers who persist in non-conformance after sufficient warnings are replaced, no matter how "good" they are otherwise. -- Jack Klein Home: http://JK-Technology.Com FAQs for comp.lang.c http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html comp.lang.c++ http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/ alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~ajo/docs/FAQ-acllc.html [ See http://www.gotw.ca/resources/clcm.htm for info about ] [ comp.lang.c++.moderated. First time posters: Do this! ] Back to top David B. Held Guest Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 12:24 pm    Post subject: Re: Coding guidelines/Notation Iguana wrote: Quote: A few questions, is there a most commonly used hungarian notation that everyone uses (or similar notation)? Yes. It's the null notation (meaning, most coders don't use Hungarian any more). Boost follows the convention adopted by the standard, which is to use lowercase names for concrete identifiers with words separated by underscores, and capitalized names for template parameters. I think the consensus is that codifying the type in the name is brittle and adds little value. I personally use an additional convention where I append an underscore to the names of private identifiers (whether they are class members or private to a module). Other than that, I think there is also a consensus that complete words make for better identifiers than cryptic abbreviations. I still use identifiers like "i" and "x" where appropriate, but for less local names I prefer more or less complete names. Quote: Secondly, I've read a few coding guidelines, but none really seem to hit home with me (I don't really agree with some of the things they're saying with respect to readability). Is there a "Top 10 Coding Guidelines" list, or somewhere where I can find a standardized (or similar) guideline? You could take a look at Herb and Andrei's latest work: C++ Coding Standards. It's probably as good as any other list you will find (and maybe better than most). Quote: Lastly, I'm getting the idea that layout is mostly down to the coder, after you take things like readability into account. Is this reasonably accurate? Modulo consistency among members working on the same project, I would agree. Then you have XP, which encourages all the code in an organization to look indistinguishable w.r.t. the author. But if you mean: "Is K&R brace formatting better or worse than BSD style?" then I think most people would agree that there is no "right" answer to the question. Dave [ See http://www.gotw.ca/resources/clcm.htm for info about ] [ comp.lang.c++.moderated. First time posters: Do this! ] Back to top kanze@gabi-soft.fr Guest Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 6:08 pm    Post subject: Re: Coding guidelines/Notation Iguana wrote: Quote: A few questions, is there a most commonly used hungarian notation that everyone uses (or similar notation)? I think the consensus is that Hungarian notation is to be avoided. About the most anyone I know puts in a name is whether it is a member or non (non-members being almost exclusively local variables or parameters). There are several prevailing conventions for this: prefixing my (or our for static member variables), prefixing m_ (s_), postfixing _, etc. Quote: Secondly, I've read a few coding guidelines, but none really seem to hit home with me (I don't really agree with some of the things they're saying with respect to readability). Is there a "Top 10 Coding Guidelines" list, or somewhere where I can find a standardized (or similar) guideline? Some ten years back, "Programming in C++, Rules and Recommendations", by Henricson and Nyquist (the Ellemtel guidelines) ( http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/lab/cplus/c++.rules/) was pretty much the standard. Most of it is probably still pretty good, but of course, it doesn't have much to say about templates and exceptions, which are important aspects in modern C++. Quote: Lastly, I'm getting the idea that layout is mostly down to the coder, after you take things like readability into account. Is this reasonably accurate? Not really. About the only consensus that you'll find concerning layout is that everyone thinks that theirs is the best. And a recognition amongst the more competent programmers that the differences between the recognized layouts aren't important enough to be worth fighting over. However, it is not just down to the coder: layout within a project should be consistent. The project should adopt one layout, and everybody should stick with it. (Ditto for naming conventions.) -- James Kanze GABI Software http://www.gabi-soft.fr Conseils en informatique orientée objet/ Beratung in objektorientierter Datenverarbeitung 9 place Sémard, 78210 St.-Cyr-l'École, France, +33 (0)1 30 23 00 34 [ See http://www.gotw.ca/resources/clcm.htm for info about ] [ comp.lang.c++.moderated. First time posters: Do this! ] Back to top Rene Moehring Guest Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 6:26 pm    Post subject: Re: Coding guidelines/Notation On 20 Jan 2005 06:58:06 -0500, Jack Klein wrote: Quote: On 19 Jan 2005 16:19:48 -0500, Iguana <hairnet (AT) f2s (DOT) com> wrote in comp.lang.c++.moderated: A few questions, is there a most commonly used hungarian notation that everyone uses (or similar notation)? No, "Hungarian" notation is a dead issue. Secondly, I've read a few coding guidelines, but none really seem to hit home with me (I don't really agree with some of the things they're saying with respect to readability). Is there a "Top 10 Coding Guidelines" list, or somewhere where I can find a standardized (or similar) guideline? Can't help. Lastly, I'm getting the idea that layout is mostly down to the coder, after you take things like readability into account. Is this reasonably accurate? No, unless you are talking about a single programmer working in complete isolation. Any organization committed to quality software has code inspections, and has mandatory guidelines for layout so inspection time is not wasted by constantly adjusting from one programmer's "style" to the other's. There are a lot of code beautifiers/indenters. That way adjusting is just one app call away. -- I'm not a racist. I hate everyone equally! [ See http://www.gotw.ca/resources/clcm.htm for info about ] [ comp.lang.c++.moderated. First time posters: Do this! ] Back to top Darren Bane Guest Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 6:47 pm    Post subject: Re: Coding guidelines/Notation I concur that Hungarian notation is dead. You're supposed to use the type system to do that job nowadays. If you haven't already, you should read the FAQs on coding guidelines, there is some good stuff there: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/coding-standards.html If you're interested, in the past I had bad experience with managers forcing me to write C in C++ because of organisational policy. This almost convinced me to have no coding standards, but in the end I relented, and plumped for the following: [url]http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/*checkout*/boost/boost/more/Attic/coding_guidelines.html?content-type=text%2Fplain&rev=1.1.2.6[/url] (Sorry if that hyperlink splits, It should be all one line.) I disagree that the mechanics of layout (tab width, tabs vs. spaces) should be up to the coders. Standardising this has no ill effects, other than annoying prima donnas (always a good outcome ). Leaving it unspecified means people waste time reformatting files to their favourite style (albeit with the help of a good text editor). So far, fairly harmless. Then they check it into your configuration management system (you are using SCM, aren't you?) and it looks like they edited every line in the file, when they might have only changed one. [ See http://www.gotw.ca/resources/clcm.htm for info about ] [ comp.lang.c++.moderated. 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