[GNUnet-SVN] r5741 - GNUnet

[gnunet]

Author: grothoff
Date: 2007-11-23 04:22:59 -0700 (Fri, 23 Nov 2007)
New Revision: 5741

Added:
   GNUnet/HACKING
Log:
codingstandard

Added: GNUnet/HACKING
===================================================================
--- GNUnet/HACKING                              (rev 0)
+++ GNUnet/HACKING      2007-11-23 11:22:59 UTC (rev 5741)
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+NEW naming conventions for GNUnet:
+
+1) All exported symbols (function names, macros and structures) should begin
+   with the prefix "GNUNET_".  No global variables should be exported.  
+   Accepted exceptions (for now, to be reconsidered):
+   a) This rule only applies to exported symbols in normal shared libraries.  
+      For all plugins, the exported symbols must end in "_libraryname" (and 
+      follow other conventions as established by the plugin API).  Plugins
+      should avoid exporting symbols other than those used by the plugin API.
+   b) Error handling and logging functions have the prefix "GE_" (for now).
+   c) Configuration functions have the prefix "GC_" (for now).
+   d) Certain very specific libraries (ECRS, FSUI, DHT) have their own
+      prefix.  This can be ok if the prefix alone is long enough and the
+      library is highly application specific.  
+2) All function names should use lower-caps names with underscores.  Common
+   abbreviations like "RSA" should be in all-caps in function names.  Example:
+   "GNUNET_semaphore_create".
+3) All macros and constants (including values in enums) should be in all-caps,
+   exceptions are allowed if the MACRO is really used like a normal function
+   in the rest of the application.  
+4) All structs should not have underscores (other than the underscore in
+   the prefix "GNUNET_") and instead use capitalization of the first letter
+   of every word, for example "GNUNET_HashCode" (this should be the only
+   minor departure from GNU's general conventions).
+5) All local symbols (anything declared "static") should follow the same
+   conventions (except for the "GNUNET_" prefix).
+6) Global symbols that are exported but should not usually be used directly
+   (i.e., because a convenience macro is provided), should end with an 
underscore.
+
+NOTE:
+=====
+
+The existing codebase does not yet follow these conventions in many
+places (especially with respect to local symbols).  libgnunetutil.so
+should be clean.  Patches to fix things are welcome.
+
+Also, we should have a naming convention for fields of a struct.  
+Using the simple no-caps with underscores notation that is also
+used for local functions would make sense.
+