Code formatting discussion/proposal

Hi all,

I'm going through our code quite randomly at the moment while investigating the multi-currency changes.

What stands out at me is that we have:

* different indenting methods (tabs vs spaces)

* different intenting styles (2, 3, 4+ spaces)

* different widths: 80 on most files, but I've seen anything above too

* single vs double underscores as separators in tokens

* etc

I'm sorry, but it's starting to disturb me (quite a bit). So, here's my proposal:

* We remove all tabs from the code base in one huge commit (except for Makefile)

* From there on, we watch out not to add new tabs to the code base (add a test case?)

* We choose a single intenting style

- and create .emacs and vimrc examples for peolpe to use with our project; publish those on ledgersmb.org

* We settle on either 80 or 132 character-width per file and reformat all files which are over the chosen maximum;

--> With emacs starting up at 80 characters width, I'm all for 80 characters (that way multiple windows fit next to each other on my screen)

* We settle on a standard for using double underscores. My proposal:

- In Perl, we always use a single underscore, as modules are enforced through OO

- in PostgreSQL/pgPLSQL, we use the format <module>__<module-local-identifier>; making the payments code look like payment__list_all_open_invoices() or payment__post().

(Currently the former exists, but the latter is called payment_post?!)

* Each indenting level takes 2 spaces (to be added to the .emacs and vimrc examples as well)

* SQL keywords in UPPERCASE

* non-sql keywords in lowercase

* COMMENTS whereever in the code base as normal sentences: One capital and then lowercase until the dot.

* Comments are not essays: "Let's ...." and "We ..." are to be avoided;

Example from the payments code: "We want to set a gl_description"

Should be written as: "Set the gl_description"

* Further formatting choices and minimum (function) documentation requirements to be established as we go and to be collected on ledgersmb.org.

* Various project-root level files are to point to the ledgersmb.org URL where these docs can be found

Comments?

Bye,

Erik.

http://efficito.com -- Hosted accounting and ERP.

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