Formatting
- Indentation level is 4 spaces
- Don't use tabs
- Maximum line length is 78 characters
- No multiple statements per line if possible
- One Space around operators
- No spaces around parenthesis
- One Space between keyword and open parenthesis
- Block braces are on their own line, same indentation level as the line above
Naming Conventions
- Use meaningful names
- Underscore is only used for member prefix and in all-uppercase names
- Macros and constants are all-uppercase
- Types (classes, structs, typedefs) and functions are capitalized; no all-uppercase abbreviations (e.g. GtpEngine, not GTPEngine)
- Variables begin with a lower case, member variables use the prefix m_, static variables s_, global variables g_
- Names that are in the global namespace use a short prefix unique for each module
Comments
- Functions, classes, etc. are documented using Javadoc-style Doxygen syntax.
- The documentation is a single multi-line comment block, starting with
/**, followed by the (auto-)brief description in the first line, followed by the detailed description.
- Public functions are documented at the declaration in the header file, private functions at the definition in the cpp-file (exception: GTP commend callbacks are documented at the definition in the cpp-file to increase the probability that the documentation kept up-to-date if the GTP command arguments change)
Files
- No
using namespace::std in header files
- Don't include SgSystem.h in header files
- All cpp-files include SgSystem.h first (to ensure that macros are defined consistently everywhere), then the header file with the same name (to ensure self-consistency of the header file), then system includes, then other includes, alphabetically sorted (in order to not pretend that the header files are not self-consistent and depend on an inclusion order)
- Classes should be in their own file, apart from helper and friend classes
Other
- Don't write long classes or long and deeply nested functions
- Don't copy and paste code; avoid redundancy
- Don't create cyclic dependencies between classes, files or modules
- Don't use inheritance to tweak the implementation of classes
- In general: Use best C++ practices