Explore a collection of personal C programming practices that prioritize correctness, readability, and maintainability. This guide highlights straightforward rules, encourages the use of modern techniques, and emphasizes the value of simplicity in coding. Join me in refining your approach to writing efficient and effective C code.
This repository contains a collection of C programming practices that I've come to value over the years. The principles discussed aim to enhance correctness, readability, simplicity, and maintainability of the code — ultimately prioritizing these attributes over speed. In the spirit of avoiding premature optimization, I encourage developers to first focus on writing effective software and then optimize based on insights gained through meaningful benchmarks.
Key Principles of C Programming Style
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Always compile with warnings enabled: Cultivating a culture of awareness regarding potential issues in your code is vital. Use warnings to your advantage with flags such as
-Wall,-Wextra, and others to catch possible pitfalls early.CFLAGS += -Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic \ -Wformat=2 -Wno-unused-parameter -Wshadow \ -Wwrite-strings -
Modern Standards: Adopt the most current standard available, such as C11, to leverage new features while ensuring that your code remains robust across different compilers.
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Avoid Tabs: To streamline code consistency, use spaces for indentation instead of tabs. This helps to mitigate alignment issues across different environments.
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Limit Line Length: Maintain a maximum of 79 characters per line. This practice adheres to the de-facto standard and enhances readability, especially in split-screen setups.
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Comments: Favor single-line comments (
// comment) over multi-line comments (/* comment */). This simplifies readability and reduces clutter. -
Function Design: Design functions that are controlled by their input arguments. Avoid global state as much as possible to promote cleaner and more predictable code.
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Use of
const: Where applicable, utilizeconstto indicate immutability, which helps in improving code safety and understandability. -
Avoid Mixed Types: Stay clear of unsigned integers; their conversion rules can lead to subtle bugs and vulnerabilities.
Conclusion
This guide is a growing record of my evolving thoughts about C programming practices; your contributions via issues and pull requests are welcome! Adopt what resonates with you and adapt these recommendations to suit your needs.