Difference between revisions of "Policies/Kdelibs Coding Style"

Revision as of 20:31, 29 June 2011

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

In short: Kdelibs coding style follows the Qt 4 coding style.

Indentation

No tabs
4 Spaces instead of one tab

Variable declaration

Each variable declaration on a new line
Each new word in a variable name starts with a capital letter (so-called camelCase)
Avoid abbreviations
Take useful names. No short names, except:
- Single character variable names can denote counters and temporary variables whose purpose is obvious
- Variables and functions start with a lowercase letter

Example:

// wrong
KProgressBar *prbar;
QString prtxt, errstr;

// correct
KProgressBar *downloadProgressBar;
QString progressText;
QString errorString;
</code>

== Whitespace ==
* Use blank lines to group statements
* Use only one empty line
* Use one space after each keyword
* For pointers or references, use a single space before '*' or '&', but not after
* No space after a cast

Example:
<syntaxhighlight lang="cpp-qt">
// wrong
QString* myString;
if(true){
}

// correct
QString *myString;
if (true) {
}
</code>

== Braces ==
As a base rule, the left curly brace goes on the same line as the start of the statement.

Example:
<syntaxhighlight lang="cpp-qt">
// wrong
if (true)
{
}

// correct
if (true) {
}
</code>

Exception: Function implementations, class, struct and namespace declarations always have the opening brace on the start of a line.

Example:
<syntaxhighlight lang="cpp-qt">
void debug(int i)
{
    qDebug("foo: %i", i);
}

class Debug
{
};
</code>

Use curly braces even when the body of a conditional statement contains only one line.

Example:
<syntaxhighlight lang="cpp-qt">
// wrong
if (true)
    return true;

for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i)
    qDebug("%i", i);

// correct
if (true) {
    return true;
}

for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
    qDebug("%i", i);
}
</code>

== Switch statements ==
Case labels are on the same column as the switch

Example:
<syntaxhighlight lang="cpp-qt">
switch (myEnum) {
case Value1:
    doSomething();
    break;
case Value2:
    doSomethingElse();
    // fall through
default:
    defaultHandling();
    break;
}
</code>

== Line breaks ==
Try to keep lines shorter than 100 characters, inserting line breaks as necessary.

== Qt Includes ==
* If you add #includes for Qt classes, use both the module and class name.  This allows library code to be used by applications without excessive compiler include paths.

Example:
<syntaxhighlight lang="cpp-qt">
// wrong
#include <QString>

// right
#include <QtCore/QString>
</code>

== Artistic Style (astyle) automatic code formatting ==
You can use [http://astyle.sourceforge.net/ astyle] (>=1.23) to format code or to test if you have followed this document. Run the following command:
<code>
astyle --indent=spaces=4 --brackets=linux \
       --indent-labels --pad-oper --unpad-paren \
       --one-line=keep-statements --convert-tabs \
       --indent-preprocessor \
       `find -type f -name '*.cpp'` `find -type f -name '*.cc'` `find -type f -name '*.h'`
</code>
A related shell script could be found for unix in [http://websvn.kde.org/*checkout*/trunk/KDE/kdesdk/scripts/astyle-kdelibs kdesdk/scripts/astyle-kdelibs] and for windows in [http://websvn.kde.org/*checkout*/trunk/KDE/kdesdk/scripts/astyle-kdelibs.bat kdesdk/scripts/astyle-kdelibs.bat].

== Emacs and Vim scripts ==
The "scripts" directory in the kdesdk module contains, among other useful things, some useful additions to the Emacs and Vim text editors that make it easier to edit KDE code with them.
 
=== Emacs ===
The [http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdesdk/scripts/kde-emacs kde-emacs] directory contains a set of key bindings, macros and general useful code. It is compatible with both GNU Emacs and XEmacs.

To start using kde-emacs, add the following to your .emacs:

<code>
(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/kde-emacs")
(require 'kde-emacs)
</code>

Many settings can be changed by editing the "kde-emacs" group via <tt>M-x customize-group</tt>.

For more information, including what the key bindings are and what additional settings you could add to your .emacs, please check <tt>kde-emacs.el</tt> itself.

=== Vim ===
You can find a vim script in [http://websvn.kde.org/*checkout*/trunk/KDE/kdesdk/scripts/kde-devel-vim.vim kdesdk/scripts/kde-devel-vim.vim] that helps you to keep the coding style correct. In addition to defaulting to the kdelibs coding style it will automatically use the correct style for Solid and kdepim code. If you want to add rules for other projects feel free to add them in the SetCodingStyle function.

To use the script, include it in your {{path|~/.vimrc}} like this:
<code>
source /path/to/kde/sources/kdesdk/scripts/kde-devel-vim.vim
</code>


Document started by Urs Wolfer. Some parts of this document have been adopted from the Qt Coding Style document posted by Zack Rusin on kde-core-devel.

[[Category:Policies]] [[Category:C++]]