UltraScan III Programming Standards

Note: The purpose of these standards is to provide a consistent, professional look for the source code. Deviations from the general rules below are acceptable if they enhance the readability of the code.

• Tabs characters. There should be no embedded tab characters in the source code.

• Indentation. Normal indentation should be 2 spaces.

• Braces should generally be on a line by themselves. Example:

for ( i = 1; i = 10; i++ )
{
  if ( test }
  {
    block of code
  } 
}

• Braces are not required for simple if statements or loops.

  if ( test ) return;

• Variable declarations.
  1. Each variable declaration should be in a separate line.
  2. Pointers and references should be associated with the type, not the variable name. That is, use the Strostrup and not the K&R style.
  3. If reasonable, line up variable names and any equal signs for assignments.
  4. Group variable definitions of the same type together.

  int     x;
  int     range;
  QLabel* lbl_a;
  double  temperature = 72.0;
  double  y           = 1.2;

• Class variables. Try to minimize these. When necessary, make public only when truly needed.

• Spacing.
  1. There should not be a space between a function name and the first argument.
  2. There should be a space after a programming construct
  3. There should be a space after an opening parenthesis or bracket and before a closing parenthesis or bracket.
  4. There should be a space around operators such as !, =, <=, etc.

  for ( i = 0; i < 10; i++ )
  {
     x[ i ] = function( a, b, c );    
  }

• Try to keep line lengths to 80 characters or less. Occasionally exceeding 80 characters is OK if a line break would detract from the overall readability.

• If arguments to a function don't fit nicely on one line, split it like this:

  int lots_of_args( int    an_integer, long  a_long, short a_short,
                    double a_double,   float a_float )
  {
    connect( reply, SIGNAL( error    ( QNetworkReply::NetworkError ) ),
             this,  SLOT  ( postError( QNetworkReply::NetworkError ) ) );
  }

• Line things up when it makes sense:

  QString lastname   = license.value(  0 );
  QString firstname  = license.value(  1 );
  QString company    = license.value(  2 );
  QString address    = license.value(  3 );
  QString city       = license.value(  4 );
  QString state      = license.value(  5 );
  QString zip        = license.value(  6 );
  QString phone      = license.value(  7 );
  QString email      = license.value(  8 );
  QString platform   = license.value(  9 );
  QString opSys      = license.value( 10 );
  QString version    = license.value( 11 );
  QString validation = license.value( 12 );
  QString expiration = license.value( 13 );