New Layout: Coding Conventions

Naming Conventions

• For (almost) all conventions the name is a sequence of one or more case shifted words with the first word starting with uppercaes (e.g. AddRef and QueryInterface).
• We use "ns" for our private prefix to define a namespace (we cannot use C++'s namespace facility everywhere yet so we have to do things manually still). For classes, structs, enumerateds the prefix is a lowercase "ns". For macros and global procedures the prefix is a "NS_".
• Class names look like "nsFoo" for a given class Foo; for interfaces it's "nsIFoo".
• typedef's for primitive types are all lower case. Example: "nsuint32" is a 32 bit unsigned integer.
• Method names (static or not) look like "MethodName" (they have no prefix).
• Instance variables are prefixed with a lowercase "m" (e.g. mInstanceVariable).
• Method arguments are prefixed with a lowercase "a" (e.g. aArgument).
• Private global variables are prefixed with a lowercase "g" (e.g. gGlobal).
• Private global constants are prefixed with a lowercase "k" (e.g. kKonstant).
• Global procedures (e.g. factory methods) are prefixed with "NS_"
• Macros are all uppercase with underscores between each word (that is, they stick out like a sore thumb when reading the code) (e.g. NS_MACRO_FOO) and they are prefixed with "NS_" when they are exported symbols.
• Enumerated tags are prefixed with "eType_". Example: enum nsFoo { eFoo_x ... };

Coding Conventions

No whitespace after a method name and the opening left parenthesis. Curly braces on the same line as the if, for, while or switch statement. Curly braces on a new line for method implementations. No tabs in source files. Indenting for a given source file should be 100% consistent and be 2 spaces.

License Information

/* -*- Mode: C++;    tab-width: 2; indent-tabs-mode: nil; c-basic-offset: 2 -*- 
 * 
 * The contents of this file are subject to the Netscape Public License 
 * Version 1.0 (the "NPL"); you may not use this file except in 
 * compliance with the NPL. You may obtain a copy of the NPL at  
 * http://www.mozilla.org/NPL/ 
 * 
 * Software distributed under the NPL is distributed on an "AS IS" basis, 
 * WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the NPL 
 * for the specific language governing rights and limitations under the 
 * NPL. 
 * 
 * The Initial Developer of this code under the NPL is Netscape 
 * Communications Corporation. Portions created by Netscape are 
 * Copyright (C) 1998 Netscape Communications Corporation. All Rights    
 * Reserved. */

Language Limitations