Style Guide¶

The goal of the style guide is to describe in detail naming conventions for developing HELICS. Style conventions are encapsulated in the .clang_format files in the project.

We have an EditorConfig file that has basic formatting rules code editors and IDEs can use. See https://editorconfig.org/ for how to setup support in your preferred editor or IDE.

Naming Conventions¶

All functions should be camelCase

publication_id_t registerGlobalPublication (const std::string &name, const std::string &type, const std::string &units = "");

All classes should be PascalCase except those noted below(namely classes which are wrappers for fundamental types)

class ValueFederate : public virtual Federate
{
public:
    ValueFederate (const FederateInfo &fi);
}

class methods should be camelCase

Publication &registerGlobalPublication (const std::string &name, const std::string &type, const std::string &units = "");

Exceptions: functions that match standard library functions e.g. to_string()

All fundamental types and enumerations should be underscore separated words in lower case. Fundamental types are those for which normal usage does not involve calling any methods or are simple aliases for other fundamental types

/* Type definitions */
typedef enum {
    helics_ok,
    helics_discard,
    helics_warning,
    helics_error,
} helics_status;

typedef void *helics_subscription;
typedef void *helics_publication;
typedef void *helics_endpoint;
typedef void *helics_source_filter;
typedef void *helics_destination_filter;
typedef void *helics_core;
typedef void *helics_broker;

typedef int helics_bool_t;

All C++ functions and types should be contained in the helics namespace with subnamespaces used as appropriate
```
namespace helics
{
    ...
} // namespace helics
```

C interface functions should begin with helicsXXXX

helics_bool helicsBrokerIsConnected (helics_broker broker);

C interface function should be of the format helics{Class}{Action} or helics{Action} if no class is appropriate
```
helics_bool helicsBrokerIsConnected (helics_broker broker);

const char *helicsGetVersion ();
```
All cmake commands (those defined in cmake itself) should be lower case
```
if as opposed to IF
install vs INSTALL
```

Public interface functions should be documented consistent with Doxygen style comments non public ones should be documented as well with doxygen but we are a ways from that goal

/** get an identifier for the core
    @param core the core to query
    @return a string with the identifier of the core
*/
HELICS_EXPORT const char *helicsCoreGetIdentifier (helics_core core);