The complete CSCI 1300/2270 Programming Style Guide is shown below. The most important issues (which we'll always grade on!) are:
In order to allow easy reading and understanding of everybody's programs, and to avoid risky programming practices, all software organizations have guidelines that programmers must follow. This page contains the guidelines we require you to follow in CSCI1300. For your interest, you might also look at some a real-world programming stylesheets.
At the same time, this page defines abbreviations that we can use in providing feedback to you on your programs. For example, if we mark II on a program you turn in, this sheet tells you that we think you have used incorrect indenting.
So, here's a list of bad things we'll be looking for in your programs, and the abbreviations we'll use to notify you if we find them.
RULE 1: Incremental Development and Testing
RULE 2: Fixing Bugs
If you come to me and say, "My program was crashing, so I thought I would try such-and-such," then I will send you away.
If I point out a wrong piece of code and you say, "I had it right, but the program wasn't working, so I changed it," then I will send you away.
Never change correct code to something that you know is wrong or to something that you are trying because it seemed to work for someone else. You must identify the problem and know how to fix it before you change your code. If you want to try something to see how it works, then do so in a separate small program that focuses on just that feature. I mean it: I'll send you away.
Having said all this, I'll also add that it is fine to play around with a program in order to get more information about what is going wrong or to better understand the language features. But before you start playing, make sure that you have saved your original program in a separate location.
void foo(int x, int y)
{
int i;
for (i = 0; i < N; i++)
{
cout << i << endl;
cout << i*i << endl;
if (i > M)
{
cout << "M exceeded" << endl;
}
}
}
for,
while,
if,
and one space after each semi-colon in the control of a for-loop.
i
or n or t.
plant_age.
Names of constants are all upper-case letters with underscores
to separate new words, such as MANY_COLUMNS.
return
to send
information back to the calling program.
Use non-const reference parameters only when you must.
(generally, when the function produces several pieces of information).
Avoid functions that return information with a
return
statement and also returns other information through its parameters.
Avoid using an if-else statement to return a boolean value. For
example, consider this code:
if (x < 0)The preference is to omit the if-statement and just have a return statement:
return true;
else
return false;
return (x < 0);.