Platform Coding Conventions

This document contains the conventions in force for developing Platform OS source code. The focus is on C++, but a good number of the conventions are language generic.

Items not covered yet:

Portability issues section
- constant strings (TCHAR, etc.)
- structure/class instance data alignment
- endian-ness
- variable decls in for loop statements?
C++ features we don't use.
- templates
- namespaces
- exceptions
Casting (static/reinterpret/dynamic macros).
Copy constructors and assignment operator.

What's New

See the change log.

Chapters

Introduction: Why standardize? Interpretation. Enforcement. Credits.
General Recommendations: Recommendations too general to fit into a specific topic or language feature.
Source Code Files: Naming, file oriented comments and documentation, include files.
Documentation: Cocoon formatting. Method headers, and other misc commenting standards.
Naming Conventions: How to name variables, functions, methods, classes, etc.
Style and Formatting: How code should look.
Error Checking Code: The assert() macro on steroids.
Debug Aid Code: How to make debugging easier.
Classes: Deals with the object oriented aspects of the coding conventions.
Functions: Conventions dealing with functions and methods.
Constants: Declaring and defining constants.
Variables: Naming and use of variables.
Pointers and References: Issues around pointers and references.
Portability: Portability issues and standards.