Policies/Kdepim Coding Style

From KDE TechBase

This document describes the recommended coding style for kdepim. Nobody is forced to use this style, but to have consistent formatting of the source code files it is strengly recommended to make use of it.

In short: Kdepim coding style follows the Kdelibs coding style.

 
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Introduction

As discussed at the KDEPIM meeting, Berlin 3. of march 2013, all the files of KDEPIM will be reviewed to follow the coding style. Not all the kdepim-sources follows yet ( 6 Mar 2013 ) these rules. A migration is actually running, directory after directory, for each of the rules defined under. But it's still needs some more weeks to be ready.

To do the migration, we are using two kinds of scripts:

  • to check the sources,
  • to change the sources automatically if possible. It is sometime advice to modify the result of the second script.

The rules

  • don't use any <TAB>s
 Using <TAB> is not recommanded.
  • trim the lines
 No <SPACE> at the end of a line.
  • no twice (or more) empty lines
 The first line muss be not empty.
 Use only one empty line.
 The last line muss be not empty.

The Migration

For each rule, one can find one or two script(s). The first script is to check a single file or a complete directory for all .h and .cpp files.

If present, the second script makes the changes for a single file or a complete directory for all .h and .cpp files. For some complicated situations, the script makes no change.

One can use the scripts for it's own work. It is important to use them in the shown order.

The scripts

don't use any <TAB>s

coding-style-check-Tabs.sh
coding-style-change-Tabs.sh

The output of the check is:

check the file /home/guy-kde/projects/kdepimlibs/ktnef/ktnefparser.cpp
1->308: Tab at 16:   stream_ >> i;              // i <- attribute type & name
2->311: Tab at 16:   stream_ >> i;              // i <- data length
3->326: Tab at 22:   case attATTACHMENT:        // try to get attachment info
4->367: Tab at 16:   stream_ >> u;      // u <- checksum
(a) (b)      (c)     (d)

showing:

the name of the file which is under test.
the number of occurence(a), the line number(b), the position found(c) and the line itself(d).

The change script

 makes a substitution of any <TAB> with eight spaces,
 works for the complete source, even within comments and strings,
 That might be too much and changes the vertical alignment of the code.

trim the lines

coding-style-check-Trim.sh
coding-style-change-Trim.sh

The output of the check is:

check the file /home/guy-kde/Software/coding-style-check/trim.cpp
2->51: Space(s) at end of line (28):   QVariant m_matchData;

showing:

the name of the file which is under test.
the number of occurence, the line number, the position found and the line itself.

The change script

 removes all the space(s) at the end of all lines.

no twice (or more) empty lines

coding-style-check-Twice.sh
coding-style-change-Twice.sh

The output of the check is:

check the file /home/guy-kde/projects/kdepimlibs/syndication/rss2/enclosure.cpp
    1->25: next empty line found
    2->26: next empty line found
    3->30: next empty line found