C++ Coding Standard

Coding standard and various notes regarding writing software in the C and C++ programming languages. This document describes my preferences of writing and structuring code in recent and future projects.

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General development recommendations

[A1] Clean compilation without any warning at –Wall and -Wextra
[A2] At least single test program for every logical unit
[A3] Methodical separating logical sets of functionality into standalone libraries
[A4] Use of idioms and standard patterns
[A5] Holy wars about GOTOs, SE-SE, etc. are forbidden!
[A6] Strict consistency

Conceptual rules

[B1] Minimal use of global or shared data
[B2] Single entity has a single responsibility
[B3] No unused (dead) or duplicate code
[B4] Hidden implementation, PIMPL idiom
[B5] Initialization is allocation, RAII idiom
[B6] No-fail destructor and swap operation
[B7] Limit functions to 200 LLOC and 7 parameters
[B8] Natural semantics and canonical definition of operators
[B9] Handling all potential points of failure

Comments

[C1] Don't comment WHAT, do comment WHY
[C2] No commentary decorations
[C3] File header comment
[C4] Contract description at every function declaration
[C5] TODO comments
[C6] Always commented empty blocks

Styling

[D1] 4 spaces indenting, no tabs
[D2] Separating with spaces, partitioning with empty rows
[D3] Naming [...]
[D4] Use of typical, common, identifier names [...]
[D5] Single command or expression on a single row
[D6] No need to conserve space

Mandatory syntactic rules

[E1] Digraphs and Trigraphs are forbidden
[E2] Restricted preprocesor use
[E3] Forbidden and restricted C library functions [...]
[E4] No magic constants
[E5] Prefer suitable technique and algorithm before manual optimizations
[E6] Const-correct code
[E7] Tight variables locality
[E8] Polymorphism instead of type codes where possible
[E9] Extern declarations instead of #include where easily possible
[E10] Restricted casting [...]
[E11] Explicit this qualification
[E12] Only local "using namespace"

References used

Addison Wesley Professional, ISBN: 0-321-11358-6, October 25, 2004
Herb Sutter, Andrei Alexandrescu: C++ Coding Standards: 101 Rules, Guidelines, and Best Practices
NO STARCH PRESS, ISBN: 1-59327-119-0, December 2006
Pete Goodliffe: Code Craft, The Practice of Writing Excellent Code

Jan Ringoš, Tringi.TRIMCORE.cz