601.229 (S24): CSF coding style guidelines

This document is intended to help you meet the design and coding style expectations for programs you submit for CSF.

These guidelines are somewhat specific to C programs. If the assignment specifications allow you to use other languages (such as Python), then we expect you to follow standard good coding style practices for the language you’re using.

Identifier naming

Choose good identifier names for your variables, functions, data types, etc.

Variable names should indicate the meaning/purpose of the information stored in the variable.

Function names should concisely describe the purpose of the function.

Data type names should name the problem domain entity that an instance of the data type refers to.

Identifiers consisting of multiple words can be “traditional style” (lower-case, words separated by underscores) or “camel case” (words except first are capitalized.) Traditional:

int cache_size;
float velocity_meters_per_sec;

Camel case:

int cacheSize;
float velocityMetersPerSec;

Indentation

Your program should use indentation levels to indicate the nesting level of nested blocks. Each increase in nesting should increase the indentation by one level. One indentation level should be between 2 and 8 spaces (inclusive). Four spaces per indent is recommended, but not required.

You should either use exclusively spaces or exclusively tabs for indentation. Do not mix spaces and tabs.

Brace placement

“Java style” is fine:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
        printf("%d\n", i);
    }
    return 0;
}

“Microsoft style” is also fine:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
    {
        printf("%d\n", i);
    }
    return 0;
}

Comments

Each function, if not clear, should have a comment describing the purpose and operation of the function, parameters, and return value.

Use appropriate comments to document the intent behind your code, especially the more complex parts of your code. Note that comments are not a substitute for writing clear and understandable code.

Consistency

Be consistent in your coding style. For example:

Don’t mix identifier naming conventions
Use consistent indentation
Use consistent brace placement
Use consistent function comments

If you are working in a team, make sure that all of the team members are following the same coding style conventions.

Design

Use good modular design practices in your program. Use functions to manage the complexity of your code: once the body of a function reaches about 20 (non-comment) lines of code, you should consider refactoring your code to use helper functions. There is no absolute rule about function length, but the following guidelines about function length are worth considering:

1-20 non-comment lines of code: most functions should be in this range
20-30 non-comment lines of code: you should consider refactoring code into one or more helper functions to reduce complexity
30-50 non-comment lines of code: it might be reasonable for one or two functions in your program to be this long (perhaps your main function), but deductions for over-complexity are a possibility
More than 50 non-comment lines of code: expect a style deduction

Use problem-domain-specific data types as appropriate. For example, in a file server application, you might have a data type called FileResource representing a file resource managed by the server. Each problem-domain data type should be supported by functions to implement important operations. For example, the FileResource data type might support the following function to get the file size of a file resource:

ssize_t file_resource_get_size(struct FileResource *res);

Memory correctness

We expect that all code written in memory-unsafe languages such as C and C++ to execute without any memory errors or memory leaks. Make sure that you use tools such as valgrind when testing your programs. In general, we will deduct points for code that does not execute cleanly in valgrind, or exhibits other types of memory errors at runtime.