STYLE

DISCLAIMER
==========

We don't need endless discussions, or worse a flamewar, regarding
coding guidelines, but we want (some) consistency in the
codebase. Hence, I come up with these guidelines that I define
dictatorially. If you disagree with something here, you can comment in
private e-mail but it's very likely that your comment will be ignored.

For obvious reasons, don't change this file.

-- JP

STYLE GUIDELINES
================

* Rules on the top of this list are more important, and take precedence over
  rules at the bottom.

* Don't change code for purely stylistic reasons! It is the
  responsibility of the maintainer of a piece of code to interpret
  and apply the style rules of this document.

* Please stick to the following guidelines when you write new code.

* Haddock.

  * Comment all top-level functions
    Use no line with just '--' before or after the comment text.
    Don't put a blank line between the haddock comment and the commented entity.

    Example

     -- | Description, description, description
     -- ... continued on other line.
     f :: Type
     f = definition

   If the comment is extremely lengthy (> 10 lines), you may want to consider switching to {- -} 
   style to reduce visual clutter.

* Parentheses, brackets, etc.

  Space outside; no space inside.

  Example:

     x :: [Int]
     x = (a + 1) * 2

* Case

  Use camelCase in naming functions.

  Example:

     good: `oneTwoThree`
     bad:  `onetwothree`
     bad:  `one_two_three`

* Follow the coding style of the other modules.

* Code should ideally be compilable with `-Wall -Werror`; there should be no warnings.
  Exceptions, however, can be made if one must declare an instance or omit a 
  signature. 

* If a module imports another module, but only uses a few things, it should 
  enumerate its imports; this makes things clearer for later developers, and it
  also prevents potential future breakage (from name clashes etc.).

* Partial functions should be avoided; your code should be reliable. An editor 
  crashing can cost the user a lot of work!

  However, all exceptions in functions that run interactively (called by the
  keymap) are caught. You are in fact encourarged to rely on this to reduce
  clutter. 
  For example, if your function expects an integer smaller than 10,
  it is better to just error out than to add specific error handling in
  that function

* Do not add tabs; they can cause problems.

* Please try to avoid trailing whitespace. Some people don't like them,
  and they are in general useless. One empty line at the end of the file
  is ok though (and in fact encouraged by unix tradition).

* New modules should identify the author, and include comments on the
  purpose of the module.

* Try to write both concisely and clearly. For example, `\_ -> foo` is usually
  worse than `const foo`, but `\_ b _ -> foo b` is definitely better than the
  equivalent `const (const . foo)`. No excuses for obvious things, like not
  replacing `foo a b = a` with `foo a _ = a`, though. (Or even better `foo a
  _interestingName = a`, if you feel the meaning of the ignored argument should be
  reminded)

* A useful tool for checking style is the 'hlint' tool on Hackage. However, not all 
  of its suggestions should be followed (and one should check that a suggestion results
  in clearer/better code, and compilable code, for that matter). To filter out entire categories
  of suggestions we find objectionable, use an invocation of hlint that looks like this:
  $ hlint --ignore='Eta reduce' --ignore="Lambda shift" --ignore="Use const"
     --ignore="Use a string literal" Yi/
  
  (Do not use liftM, use <$> or fmap)