Coding Style

This is a suggestion for a coding style to be used consistently accross Mineserver's source code.

• Indentation: 2 spaces
• Class names: Camelcase, starting with uppercase letter, e.g.: FurnaceManager
• Variable and method names: Camelcase, starting with lowercase letter, e.g.: updateWorld(), userCommands.
  • Pointer variables: Use Foo* bar instead of Foo *bar
  • Using short names for loop variables is ok, e.g. i, j. Otherwise use descriptive names and don't use abbreviations all over the place, to make the code more readable.
• Inline methods: Keep them short (max 10-15 lines at most).
• Documentation: Use doxygen-style (javadoc-style?) documentation for at least all public methods. Example:

    /**
     * The foo() method. Does some fooish stuff, yo!
     * @param bar Bar instance to be used in foo().
     * @return An instance of Baz that does something fantastic!
     */
     Baz* Foo::foo(Bar* bar);

• • Note: Documentation should go in to the header file.
• Class definitions: Put public methods at the top of the definition. They're usually the most interesting part from a user's point of view. Private stuff at the bottom.

      /**
       * The foo() method. Does some fooish stuff, yo!
       * @param bar Bar instance to be used in foo().
       * @return An instance of Baz that does something fantastic!
       */
      Baz* foo(Bar* bar);
      
      private:
      /* private instance vars etc go here.*/
    };

• • Instance variables should usually be accessible through getter and setter methods and thus be private. In some cases having them public is fine (e.g. when they're accessed all over the place and modifiying them happens all over the place as well. Usually this is the case for "dumb classes" used as pure data structures. We should consider using a struct instead for these cases.). Also, don't use prefixes for public instance variables, since it's ugly to use. For private instance variables we could choose to use m_foo and have a getter method be just foo() and a setter setFoo().
  • Static (class) variables should start with just an underscore, e.g. _instance, _users etc.
• Namespaces: We probably should use them.
• Codeblocks: Use braces always for clarity and to prevent bugs while editing code

    if (true)
    {
      foo = bar;
    }

    if (true)
    {
      foo = bar;
      foo2 = bar2;
    }

• Spacing:

    Foo* bar = new Foo();
    fooBar(param1, param2, param3);
    for (int i = 0; i < 1; i++)
    {
      ...
    }