From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 31 12:05:07 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 29B9110659B5 for ; Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:05:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from will.rutherdale@utoronto.ca) Received: from mail.vex.net (smaug.vex.net [208.76.104.132]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DFF558FC1F for ; Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:05:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from will.rutherdale@utoronto.ca) Received: from [192.168.110.8] (unknown [207.35.13.75]) by mail.vex.net (Postfix) with ESMTPA id 792D51710C; Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:48:01 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <49D202F0.9010104@utoronto.ca> Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:48:00 -0400 From: William Gordon Rutherdale User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.14ubu (X11/20080505) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Polytropon References: <20090331025726.GA10888@thought.org> <20090331112122.ae329221.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20090331112122.ae329221.freebsd@edvax.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Gary Kline , FreeBSD Mailing List Subject: Re: Why?? (prog question) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:05:23 -0000 Polytropon wrote: > I don't want to start a "style debate", but forgive me the > following annotations: > > 1. Use the tab character for indentation. You can set its > length with your favourite editor (e. g. mcedit: F9, > Options, General; joe: ^TD). Don't waste with spaces. > > 2. The main() function should be declared as > int main(int argc, char *argv[]) > or > int main(int argc, char **argv) > Note that it's returning (int). Use this functionality. > > 3. In case of errors (e. g. incorrect number of parameters) > use fprintf() to stderr, or perror() with the builtin > error handling (e. g. for "file not found" by fopen()). > > 4. Use the predefined return codes, don't hardcode them. > FreeBSD has EXiT_SUCCESS and EXIT_FAILURE, they're for > maximum compatibility (such as with Linux). There are > more exit codes for differentiation, but they're specific > to FreeBSD, as far as I know. > > 5. This is highly debatable: Use a good style for { and }. > > 6. Use delimiters around operators, e. g. buf[strlen(buf) - 1] > instead of buf[strlen(buf)-1]; increases readability. > > Here is the program again, with some stylistic modifications > and the "correct" (read: recommended, usual) exit code handling: > > > > > /* > * simple prog to join all | very nearly all lines of a text file > * that make up one paragraph into one LONG line. > * > * paragraphs are delimiated by a single \n break. > */ > > #include > #include > #include > > int main(int argc, char *argv[]) > { > char buf[65536]; > > > if(argc == 1) { > fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s < file > newfile\n", argv[0]); > exit(EXIT_FAILURE); > } > > while (fgets(buf, sizeof buf, stdin)) { > if(*buf == '\n') { > fprintf(stdout, "\n\n"); > } else { > buf[strlen(buf) - 1] = ' '; > fputs(buf, stdout); > } > } > > return EXIT_SUCCESS; > } > > > > > > Note that compiling with -Wall (always a good option) doesn't > show any warning. > > > > I read my advices again... makes me sound sooooo old! :-) > > > > Tabbing is the worst form of indentation. It is *much* better to use spaces consistently. -Will