Pixman coding style. ==================== The pixman coding style is close to cairo's with one exception: braces go on their own line, rather than on the line of the if/while/for: if (condition) { do_something(); do_something_else(); } not if (condition) { do_something(); do_something_else(); } Specific guidelines: Indentation =========== Each new level is indented four spaces: if (condition) do_something(); This may be achieved with space characters or with a combination of tab characters and space characters. Tab characters are interpreted as Advance to the next column which is a multiple of 8. Names ===== In all names, words are separated with underscores. Do not use CamelCase for any names. Macros have ALL_CAPITAL_NAMES Type names are in lower case and end with "_t". For example pixman_image_t. Labels, functions and variables have lower case names. Braces ====== Braces always go on their own line: if (condition) { do_this (); do_that (); } else { do_the_other (); } Rules for braces and substatements of if/while/for/do: * If a substatement spans multiple lines, then there must be braces around it. * If the condition of an if/while/for spans multiple lines, then braces must be used for the substatements. * If one substatement of an if statement has braces, then the other must too. * Otherwise, don't add braces. Comments ======== For comments either like this: /* One line comment */ or like this: /* This is a multi-line comment * * It extends over multiple lines */ Generally comments should say things that is clear from the code itself. If too many comments say obvious things, then people will just stop reading all comments, including the good ones. Whitespace ========== * Put a single space after commas * Put spaces around arithmetic operators such a +, -, *, /: y * stride + x x / unit_x * Do not put spaces after the address-of operator, the * when used as a pointer derefernce or the ! and ~ operators: &foo; ~0x00000000 !condition *result = 100 * Break up long lines (> ~80 characters) and use whitespace to align things nicely. This is one way: some_very_long_function name ( implementation, op, src, mask, dest, src_x, src_y, mask_x, mask_y, dest_x, dest_y, width, height); This is another: some_very_long_function_name (implementation, op, src, mask, dest, src_x, src_y, mask_x, mask_y, dest_x, dest_y, width, height); * Separate logically distinct chunks with a single newline. This obviously applies between functions, but also applies within a function or block or structure definition. * Use a newline after a block of variable declarations. * Use a single space before a left parenthesis, except where the standard will not allow it, (eg. when defining a parameterized macro). * Don't eliminate newlines just because things would still fit on one line. This breaks the expected visual structure of the code making it much harder to read and understand: if (condition) foo (); else bar (); /* Yuck! */ * Do eliminate trailing whitespace (space or tab characters) on any line. Also, avoid putting initial or final blank lines into any file, and never use multiple blank lines instead of a single blank line. * Do enable the default git pre-commit hook that detect trailing whitespace for you and help you to avoid corrupting cairo's tree with it. Do that as follows: chmod a+x .git/hooks/pre-commit * You might also find the git-stripspace utility helpful which acts as a filter to remove trailing whitespace as well as initial, final, and duplicate blank lines. Function Definitions ==================== Function definitions should take the following form: void my_function (argument) { do_my_things (); } If all the parameters to a function fit naturally on one line, format them that way. Otherwise, put one argument on each line, adding whitespace so that the parameter names are aligned with each other. I.e., do either this: void short_arguments (const char *str, int x, int y, int z) { } or this: void long_arguments (const char *char_star_arg, int int_arg, double *double_star_arg, double double_arg) { } Mode lines ========== Given the rules above, what is the best way to simplify one's life as a code monkey? Get your editor to do most of the tedious work of beautifying your code! As a reward for reading this far, here are some mode lines for the more popular editors: /* * vim:sw=4:sts=4:ts=8:tw=78:fo=tcroq:cindent:cino=\:0,(0 * vim:isk=a-z,A-Z,48-57,_,.,-,> */