.. _lblCodingStyle:

============
Coding Style
============

Not all code needs to follow the guide perfectly, but it is important to try to maintain a standard of quality.

The SimCenter frontend applications are written in **C++**. The applications that run in the backend are written in a mixture of languages: **Python**, **C**, and **C++**. The SimCenter strives to use a standard style across the applications. This section outlines that style. 

.. contents:: Table of Contents
   :local:


Consistency is the most important aspect of style. The second most important aspect is following a style that the average programmer is used to reading. 



.. _lbl-code-style-python:

------------
Python Style
------------

For code written in Python, SimCenter programmers follow the widely used
`Guide PEP 8 <https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/>`_



.. _lbl-code-style-c:

-----------
C/C++ Style
-----------

Unlike Python, C/C++ does not have a widely accepted style guideline. Some guidelines of note include the `Google Style <https://google.github.io/styleguide/cppguide.html>`_, the `C++ Core Guidelines <http://isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines.html>`_ (edited by Stroustrup and Sutter), and an older
C++ 



.. _lbl-code-style-comments:

--------
Comments
--------

It goes without saying that you must use them. Try to use :code:`//` as opposed to :code:`/* */`, making it easier to comment out a block of code when debugging.



.. _lbl-code-style-naming:

------------------
Naming Conventions
------------------

All names should be meaningful and Follow a camel case approach. For classes, the names start with an uppercase letter; all class methods, functions, and variables shall begin with a lowercase letter. The exception is constant variables, which should be all uppercase, e.g. :code:`const double PI=3.14159265358979323;`



.. _lbl-code-style-files:

--------------------
Files and Interfaces
--------------------

#. Use a ``.cpp`` extension for code files and a ``.h`` extension for interface files.
#. All files should include at the start the :ref:`lblLicense`
#. All files should contain some comments about what the file contains and the name of the developers who worked substantially on the code.
#. Use indentation to make the code easier to read; the **Qt** editor has a nice feature that will auto-indent code for you.
#. In addition, when writing header files:

   #. Never ever ever use ``using namespace`` in a header.
   #. All header files should additionally include documentation as the purpose of the class and the methods. The returns and args to the functions should be documented. 
   #. Header files **MUST** contain a distinctly named include guard to avoid problems with including the same header multiple times and to prevent conflicts with headers from other projects.
   #. The comments should be in a `Doxygen format <http://www.doxygen.nl/manual/docblocks.html>`_.
   #. Assign default values with ``=`` or ``{}``, a C++11 feature.
   #. All variables defined in the header must be private.

An example header file.

.. literalinclude:: SimCenterWidget.h
   :language: c++

.. note:: 
   Use 4 spaces per indentation level in both Python and C/C++ when viable.



.. _lbl-code-style-variables:

--------
Variable
--------

#. Initialize all variables
#. When initializing float and double variables with values that could be read as integer always include a ``.0``, e.g. :code:`double a = 1.0;`