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authorLuke Shumaker <lukeshu@sbcglobal.net>2016-03-01 19:15:29 -0500
committerLuke Shumaker <lukeshu@sbcglobal.net>2016-03-01 19:15:29 -0500
commitc83d2b58e1776982a7ce45009fb373ec5702c521 (patch)
tree5e6cae25f11846392936895f2c2a8ca019c21bbb /HACKING/code-style.md
parent47004c9601147b4c5c55c2bd6401bda8b6be0406 (diff)
improve HACKING documentation
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+The style guidelines aren't terribly strict. As long as things are
+consistent per-file, I'm pretty happy.
+
+Style guidelines
+================
+
+Unless you have a good reason, use `[[ ... ]]` instead of `[ ... ]`;
+they work similarly, but `[[ ... ]]` is sometimes more readable (fine,
+rarely, but never less), and is harder to make mistakes with quoting,
+because it is syntactic magic, as opposed to `[ ... ]` which is an
+executable which just happens to be implemented as a builtin.
+
+Use a litteral tab for indent. When indenting line-wrapped text, such
+as that for `prose`, do it like this: (» indicates tab, · indicates
+space)
+
+ func() {
+ » prose "This is the first line. This paragraph is going to be
+ » ·······wrapped."
+ }
+
+The `; then` and `; do` should go on the same line as
+`if`/`elif`/`for`/`while`. Also, there is no space before the `;`.
+
+Prefer the `for VAR in LIST` syntax over the `for ((init; cond; inc))`
+syntax, when possible. For example (heh, `for` example):
+
+ local i
+ for (( i = 1 ; i <= 10 ; i++ )); do
+
+should be
+
+ local i
+ for i in {1..10}; do
+
+Of course, if the upper bound is a variable, the C-like syntax is
+the better option, as otherwise you would have to use `seq` (calling
+an external), or `eval` (gross, easy to mess up royally).
+
+Indent comments like you would code; don't leave them at the beginning
+of the line. Example:
+
+ for item in "${list[@]}"; do
+ if [[ $item == foo ]]; then
+ # BAD
+ foobar
+ fi
+ if [[ $item == bar ]]; then
+ # GOOD
+ barbaz
+ fi
+ done
+
+Fauno, I'm sorry. But I don't know how you can read your own code :P.
+
+Some people argue in favor of the useless use of cat, because data
+should flow from left to right. However, the input redirection
+doesn't have to go on the right side of a command:
+
+ cat file | program # useless use of cat
+ program < file # data flows right to left
+ < file program # just right