Code style guidelines

General Guidelines

For everybody elses' sanity, please just use something that resembles the Linux Kernel code style, with the exception that cases in switch statements are indented a level. Much of the already existing code is somewhat weird looking, do not try to replicate that. Use your best judgement for C++-specific syntax.

Spaces

• Do NOT use spaces for indentation
• Try to stay under 6 levels of indentation
• Do add spaces between operators so they line up (when appropriate). For example:

np_terrain_base   = settings->getNoiseParams("mgv6_np_terrain_base");
np_terrain_higher = settings->getNoiseParams("mgv6_np_terrain_higher");
np_steepness      = settings->getNoiseParams("mgv6_np_steepness");
np_height_select  = settings->getNoiseParams("mgv6_np_height_select");
...
bool success =
	np_terrain_base  && np_terrain_higher && np_steepness &&
	np_height_select && np_trees          && np_mud       &&
	np_beach         && np_biome          && np_cave;

• Separate different parts of functions with newlines for readability
• Separate functions by two newlines (not necessary, but encouraged)

Don't be too C++y

• Don't use references when they're not necessary. They are rather inflexible and can be misleading.
• Don't use initializer lists unless absolutely necessary (initializing an object inside a class, or initializing a reference)
• Try to avoid operator overloading
• Avoid iterators like the plague
• Avoid templates unless very convenient

Classes

• Don't put actual code in header files, unless it's a 3-liner or an inline function
• Class definitions should go in header files
• Substantial (over 4 LoC) methods are defined outside of the class definition
• Class names are PascalCase, method names are camelCase
• Functions not part of any class should be unix_lowercase_underscore_style()

Comments

• Don't make uninformative comments like this:

/*
	Draw "Loading" screen
*/

draw_load_screen(L"Loading...", driver, font);

• Add comments to explain a non-trivial but important detail about the code, or explain behavior that is not obvious

Don't let things get too large

• Try to keep lines under 80 characters. It's okay if it goes over by a few, but 90 character lines or larger are definitely unacceptable.
• Functions should not be over 200 LoC - if you are concerned with having to pass too many parameters to child functions, make whatever it is into a class
• Don't let files get too large (over 1500 LoC)
• Currently existing huge files (game.cpp, server.cpp, etc.) are in the slow process of being cleaned up