E.g.: my_function () {
- As to use of grep, stick to a subset of BRE (namely, no \{m,n\},
- [::], [==], nor [..]) for portability.
+ [::], [==], or [..]) for portability.
- We do not use \{m,n\};
- We do not use -E;
- - We do not use ? nor + (which are \{0,1\} and \{1,\}
+ - We do not use ? or + (which are \{0,1\} and \{1,\}
respectively in BRE) but that goes without saying as these
are ERE elements not BRE (note that \? and \+ are not even part
of BRE -- making them accessible from BRE is a GNU extension).
"char * string". This makes it easier to understand code
like "char *string, c;".
+ - Use whitespace around operators and keywords, but not inside
+ parentheses and not around functions. So:
+
+ while (condition)
+ func(bar + 1);
+
+ and not:
+
+ while( condition )
+ func (bar+1);
+
- We avoid using braces unnecessarily. I.e.
if (bla) {
they were describing changes. Often splitting a function
into two makes the intention of the code much clearer.
+ - Multi-line comments include their delimiters on separate lines from
+ the text. E.g.
+
+ /*
+ * A very long
+ * multi-line comment.
+ */
+
+ Note however that a comment that explains a translatable string to
+ translators uses a convention of starting with a magic token
+ "TRANSLATORS: " immediately after the opening delimiter, even when
+ it spans multiple lines. We do not add an asterisk at the beginning
+ of each line, either. E.g.
+
+ /* TRANSLATORS: here is a comment that explains the string
+ to be translated, that follows immediately after it */
+ _("Here is a translatable string explained by the above.");
+
- Double negation is often harder to understand than no negation
at all.
processed into HTML and manpages (e.g. git.html and git.1 in the
same directory).
+ The documentation liberally mixes US and UK English (en_US/UK)
+ norms for spelling and grammar, which is somewhat unfortunate.
+ In an ideal world, it would have been better if it consistently
+ used only one and not the other, and we would have picked en_US
+ (if you wish to correct the English of some of the existing
+ documentation, please see the documentation-related advice in the
+ Documentation/SubmittingPatches file).
+
Every user-visible change should be reflected in the documentation.
The same general rule as for code applies -- imitate the existing
conventions.