Coding style

This page show you the formatting rules of editing Cuties code.

Some existing code may not follow these conventions, but they must be used for new code. If changing existing code to follow these conventions, it is best to send changes to follow the conventions separately from any other changes to the code.

Indentation

• 4 spaces are used for indentation.
• Using spaces instead of using tabs.

Declaring variables

• Suggest declaring each variable on a separate line.
• Avoid meaningless names (e.g. “a”, “rbarr”, “nughdeget”).
• Single character variable names are only okay for counters and temporaries, where the purpose of the variable is obvious.
• Wait when declaring a variable until it is needed.
• Variables and functions start with a lower-case letter. Each consecutive word in a variable’s name starts with an upper-case letter.
• Avoid abbreviations.
• Classes always start with an upper-case letter. Public classes start with a ‘Q’ (QRgb) followed by an upper case letter. Public functions most often start with a ‘q’ (qRgb).
• Acronyms are camel-cased (e.g. QXmlStreamReader, not QXMLStreamReader).

Whitespace

• Use blank lines to group statements together where suited.

• Always use only one blank line.

• For pointers or references, always use a single space between the type and ‘’ or ‘&’, but no space between the ‘’ or ‘&’ and the variable name.

• No space after a cast.

• Avoid C-style casts when possible.

    // Wrong
    char* blockOfMemory = (char* ) malloc(data.size());
       
    // Correct
    char *blockOfMemory = reinterpret_cast<char *>(malloc(data.size()));
  

• Do not put multiple statements on one line. By extension, use a new line for the body of a control flow statement.

Parentheses

• Use parentheses to group expressions:

    // Wrong
    if (a && b || c)
       
    // Correct
    if ((a && b) || c)
       
    // Wrong
    a + b & c
       
    // Correct
    (a + b) & c
  

Switch statements

• The case labels are in the same column as the switch.

• Every case must have a break (or return) statement at the end or a comment to indicate that there’s intentionally no break, unless another case follows immediately.

    switch (myEnum)
    {
    case Value1:
        doSomething();
        break;
    case Value2:
    case Value3:
        doSomethingElse();
        // fall through
    default:
        defaultHandling();
        break;
    }
  

Jump statements (break, continue, return, and goto)

• Do not put ‘else’ after jump statements:

    // Wrong
    if (thisOrThat)
        return;
    else
        somethingElse();
  
    // Correct
    if (thisOrThat)
        return;
    somethingElse();
  

Line breaks

• Keep lines shorter than 100 characters; wrap if necessary.

• Operators go at the end of wrapped lines.

        if (longExpression +
            otherLongExpression +
            otherOtherLongExpression)
        {
        }