cpp-guidelines

Light Transport Entertainment's C/C++ coding guidelines.

Language version

C++11 as a basis.

It would be better codes can be compiled with C++03 compiler(to support rather old compiler and emerging platform which does not support C++11 feature yet: e.g. RISC-V based embedded processor)

Example project is available as NanoRT ( https://github.com/lighttransport/nanort )

Platforms and compilers

Code shuld be portable and cross-platform as much as possible.

Platform

Unixish system as a first citizen. Windows and Android/iOS second.

• Linux 64bit(Ubuntu 16.04 or later)
• macOS sierra or later
• Windows 10 or later
• Android
• iOS
• x86
• ARM
• RISC-V
• JIT system(e.g. clang/LLVM JIT)

Compilers

• gcc
• clang
• MinGW, MSC(Visual Studio 2015 or later)

Complier flags

• clang : Use -Weverything -Werror -Wno-padded as a basis and suppress all warning as much as possible
• MSC : Use /W4

Memory management

Use RAII approach as much as possible: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/raii

• Use ASAN(Addres Sanitizer) to find memory related issue.
  • No memory leaks is the best.
  • cmake package: https://github.com/arsenm/sanitizers-cmake

Coding style

Use Google coding style as default.

https://google.github.io/styleguide/cppguide.html

Use clang-format to format codes.

Simple, easy-to-hack, easy-to-embed as much as possible(e.g. do not create compilex class hiearches)

Build tools

• cmake
• premake5
• Makefile
• ninja

Dependency

• NO BOOST (except for nanogi project)
• Less external project dependency as much as possible(C++ STL only or NanoSTL only preferred)
• Using header-only single C++ library preferred.

API, SDK, Specification and Format

Use cross-platform, de-fact or standalised API/SDK/Specification/Format as much as possible.

• OpenGL, WebGL
• JSON RPC(version 2.0)
• glTF(3D data exchange)
• OpenEXR(For HDR image)
• OpenCL

Recommended third party libraries

• NanoRT(raytracing kernel) https://github.com/syoyo/tinydngloader
• NanoSTL https://github.com/lighttransport/nanostl
• STB(load/save image) https://github.com/nothings/stb
• ImGui(GUI) https://github.com/ocornut/imgui
• Nuklear(GUI) https://github.com/vurtun/nuklear
• JSON for Modern C++ https://github.com/nlohmann/json
• TinyObjLoader(Wavefront .obj loader) https://github.com/syoyo/tinyobjloader
• TinyEXR(OpenEXR library) https://github.com/syoyo/tinyexr
• TinyDNGLoader(DNG RAW library) https://github.com/syoyo/tinydngloader
• window-bootstrap(Cross-platform C++ Window/UI bootstrap) https://github.com/syoyo/window-bootstrap
• Catch(Unit test framework) https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2
• Civetweb(http server) https://github.com/civetweb/civetweb
• spdlog(logging) https://github.com/gabime/spdlog

EoL.