Xref: news-dnh.mv.net comp.os.msdos.djgpp:219 Path: news-dnh.mv.net!mv!news.sprintlink.net!news.bluesky.net!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!rice!news!sandmann From: Charles Sandmann Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Code Standards Date: Wed, 07 Jun 1995 13:47:13 CDT Organization: Rice University, Houston, Texas Lines: 34 Reply-To: sandmann AT clio DOT rice DOT edu Nntp-Posting-Host: clio.rice.edu To: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu Dj-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp I don't think code "standards" will work with DJGPP. Guidelines might be a more appropriate term (which gets back to follow the style...) Right now, nothing goes into DJGPP unless DJ puts it there. DJ is *much* too busy to worry about enforcing code standards. Should he spend the time to code review each diff or new file to make sure it meets his intepretation of the standards? Suppose a really nifty addition (or patch) is sent in, but doesn't fully meet the "standard". He can put it in, causing future maintenance heartburn if it needs to be changed. But maybe it is a sorely needed feature by thousands of us and won't need to be messed with. He can request the author clean it up and resubmit it. Suppose the author does not have time - or feels it is good enough - we are back at square one. Standards without enforcement are pretty meaningless. I would suggest a "code review" panel would be more appropriate. They would be expected to test the code, check comments, etc. If they didn't like the level of comments (and the code works fine), then the objectors work with the author to add the comments or it goes in as-is. I have personally at times wished there were more comments (or later found out I wished the comments were not there because they were not updated when the algorithm changed...), but that is part of working with a mostly uncontrolled software effort. And yes, I have made it worse at times, the day before a release, sending in code without comments. Time pressure makes me do bad things :-) BTW - Morten, Eli, Mat, and others have code reviewed an amazing amount of the V2 code, and should get a big thanks from everyone for their unending hours of effort.