Coding Styles

Coding Style

C++

Each system can be its own class (class CGraphicsDevice) with member functions that work on it. This would be the most "traditional" way of doing it.

Example:

class GraphicsDevice
{
    GraphicsDevice(void* window);
    ~GraphicsDevice(void);

    Draw(void* mesh_data, void* index_data);
};

Pros

• Most normal
• Logically the easiest to think about
• Perhaps the least verbose
• When abusing C++ features, many things (such as interfacing with Lua) can be greatly simplified from the callers standpoint

Cons

• Too easy to over-engineer problems because C++ lets you
• Abusing simple C++ features (constructors, templates, etc)
• C++ can be a pain to work with when doing cross-platform support
• When abusing C++ features, the code can become damn-near unreadable

C

Example:

typedef struct lae_graphics_device_t lae_graphics_device_t;

lae_graphics_device_t* lae_graphics_create(void* window);
void lae_graphics_destroy(lae_graphics_device_t* device);
void lae_graphics_draw(lae_graphics_device_t* device, void* mesh_data, void* index_data);

Pros

• Very simple API
• Logically very easy to see what belongs where
• Easier to focus on the actual problem you're trying to solve, rather than how to code it
• Much greater cross-platform support

Cons

• Very verbose
• Untraditional
• None of the convenient C++ features

C-like C++

This interface would use C-like functions, but wrapped up in C++ namespaces. This would give it the C++ features, but force the functions to be written in a C-like way.

Example:

namespace Graphics
{
    struct Device;

    Device* Create(void* window);
    void Destroy(Device* device);
    void Draw(Device* device, void* mesh_data, void* index_data);
}

Pros

• Still C++
• Very C-like

Cons

• Still C++, so cross platform is still a bitch
• Very easy to fall into C++ traps