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Software Development and Coding Standards

Falko Kuester and David Wiley

August 24, 2001

Visualization and Interactive Systems Group
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of California, Irvine
537 Engineering Tower
Irvine, California 92697-2625

Visualization and Graphics Research Group
Center for Image Processing and Integrated Computing
Department of Computer Science
University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8562

Preface
- Where and who is Waldo?
- Resources
- Contact Information
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction
- What are Software Development and Coding Standards and why do we need them ?
- Scope
- Document layout and conventions
Directory Structure
General Naming Conventions
- File Extensions
- File Names
- Class Names
- Begin all class and struct names with C or a unique project specific identifier
- Variables
- Use Simplified Hungarian Notation for variable names
  - Class Member Variables
- Do not use _ to prefix any identifier names
File Structure
- Header File
- Header File Template
- Source File Template
Class Interface
- Data hiding
- Virtual destructor
- Order by access level
- getState(), setState(), and isProperty()
Parameter Passing
- What does a pointer imply?
Using const
- What does const mean when it's on the right-hand side of a class member function declaration?
- It is about as powerful as a mall cop
- Use const instead of #define
Templates
- Use reasonable names for your template parameter variables
- Use all capital letters on parameter names
- Postfix _TYPE onto the end of parameter names
- Use typedef to make using your template classes easier to use
  - Provide easy access to your class template parameters
Enumerations
Class Member Declaration List
Reference Counting
Multiple Constructors in a Class
Do not Be Too Hasty
Namespaces
Debugging
- Permanent Debug Code
  - std::cerr and std::cout
  - What happens when you are done debugging your code?
Development Flags
- Code Requiring Additional Work
- Code Requiring Addtional Testing and Fixing
- Missing impementation
Documentation
- Class documentation
- Function documentation
Tips and Tricks
- Pointers
- Copy constructor and assignment operator relationship?
- Passing structs as parameters
- Equality expression evaluation: (1 == n), (1 <= n), etc.
- Versioning
- Line grouping and commenting
Discussion Points
- Error handling
About this document ...

Falko Kuester 2001-08-24