coding style (was Re: [PATCH][2.5] UTF-8 support in console)

[Larry McVoy (lm@bitmover.com)]

> Please linewrap after 80 chars.

Amen to that.

> +	if (!q) {
> 
> Kill the blank line above.
> 
> +		if (!q) return;
> 
> Two lines again.

A couple of comments: in the BK source tree, we've diverged from the Linux
coding style a bit (maybe a lot, Linus has read the source, ask him).

One thing is 

	unless (p) {
		....
	}
instead of 
	if (!p) {
		....
	}

It's just a
#define unless(x) if (!(x)) 
but it makes some code read quite a bit easier.  I'm a stickler for not using
2 lines where one will do, i.e.,

	FILE	*f;

	...
	unless (f = fopen(file, "r")) {
		error handling;
		return (-1);
	}

You hiccup the first time you see it, then you can read it, then you
start using it.  Yeah, I know, I'm using the value of an assignment in
a conditional, trust me, it works fine.

One other one is the 

	if (!q) return;

Chris said two lines, we don't do it that way.  The coding style we use is
a) one line is fine for a single statement.
b) in all other cases there are curly braces

	unless (q) return;	/* OK */
	unless (q) {		/* also OK */
		return;
	}
	unless (q)
		return;		/* not OK, no "}" */


The point of this style is twofold: save a line when the thing you are
doing is a singe statement, and make it easier for your eyes (or my 
tired old eyes) to run over the code.  If you see indentation you know
it is a block and there will be a closing } without exception.

It keeps the line counts about 10% smaller or so in our source base.
If you are looking for bragging rights about how big your stuff is that
might be bad but I like it because I can read more code in a window.
-- 
---
Larry McVoy              lm at bitmover.com          http://www.bitmover.com/lm
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