hacking

Pango is a library for layout and rendering of text, with an emphasis on internationalization. Pang

Formatting
==========

All parts of Pango other than modules should use the following formatting
style; for modules, it is up to the discretion of the module 
author / maintainer, though they are encouraged to follow the following.

The Pango formatting style is basically the GNU style of formatting
(see http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards.html), with a few additions.
In brief overview:

 - Two character indents are used; braces go on a separate line, and 
   get a separate indentation level, so the total indent for an
   enclosed block is 4 characters.

    if (x < foo (y, z))
      haha = bar[4] + 5;
    else
      {
	while (z)
	  {
	    haha += foo (z, z);
	    z--;
	  }
	return abc (haha);
      }

 - Spaces should be present between function name and argument block,
   and after commas.

     foo (z, z)

 - In pointer types, the '*' is grouped with the variable name,
   not with the base type. 

    int *a;

   NOT: 'int* a'.

   In cases where there is no variable name, for instance, return
   values, there should be a single space between the base type 
   and the '*'.

 - function and variable names are lower_case_with_underscores
   type names are StudlyCaps, macro names are UPPER_CASE_WITH_UNDERSCORES


Documentation comments
======================

All public API functions should have inline documentation headers
in the gtk-doc / gnome-doc style. For instance:

/**
 * pango_layout_get_line:
 * @layout: a #PangoLayout
 * @line: the index of a line, which must be between 0 and
 *        pango_layout_get_line_count(layout) - 1, inclusive.
 * 
 * Retrieves a particular line from a #PangoLayout (or @layout.)
 * 
 * Return value: the requested #PangoLayoutLine, or %NULL if the
 *               index is out of range. This layout line can
 *               be ref'ed and retained, but will become invalid
 *               if changes are made to the #PangoLayout.
 *
 * Since: 1.6
 **/
PangoLayoutLine *
pango_layout_get_line (PangoLayout *layout,
		       int          line)
[...]


Choosing Function Names
=======================

- Don't abbreviate in unexpected ways:

    pango_layout_get_line_count ()

  Not:

    pango_layout_ln_cnt ()

- function that retrieve a value in a side-effect free fashion, should
  include "get" in the name.

    int pango_layout_get_line_count (PangoLayout *layout)

  not 

    pango_layout_line_count ()


- functions that set a single parameter in a side-effect free fashion
  should include "set" in the name, for instance:

  void pango_layout_set_width (PangoLayout    *layout,
			       int             width);

Other comments
==============

- Avoid unsigned values for all but flags fields. This is because
  the way C handles unsigned values generates bugs like crazy:

  If width is unsigned and 10, then:

   int new_width = MAX (width - 15, 1);

  produces 4294967291, not 1.