[Freeipa-devel] Proposed modification to C coding standard

[Stephen Gallagher]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 07/24/2009 02:57 PM, John Dennis wrote:
> Our coding standards highly recommended *not* using braces following a
> conditional when there is a single expression
> 
> http://freeipa.com/page/Coding_Style#Conditions_and_Statements
> 
> I propose to amend this so that it is highly recommended to always use
> braces.
> 
> Discussion:
> 
> By not using braces to form a block there is an opportunity to introduce
> a bug if a programmer adds another expression and fails to notice braces
> are now needed to preserve program logic. Always using braces is simple
> defensive programming practice and is recommended by many coding
> standards. Practical experience has shown the failure to introduce
> braces when none were there previously is a common mistake which
> introduces bugs often not found until much later, this can be eliminated
> by always using braces, readability is not compromised.
> 

I concur (and have mostly been ignoring the previous policy up to this
point).

The only comment I might make is that it may still be acceptable for
true single-line if statements, e.g.

str = malloc(10);
if(!str) return ENOMEM;

- -- 
Stephen Gallagher
RHCE 804006346421761

Looking to carve out IT costs?
www.redhat.com/carveoutcosts/
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iEYEARECAAYFAkpqBaEACgkQeiVVYja6o6P5ugCffuMYmQovLieM8+VF7vEbLvpa
1C4An2gC+tkN89YRxi5C/f30iVxi1Bnd
=Cx9g
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----