Talk:Coding style

PHP5 constructor

Should we enforce the PHP5 constructor __construct() instead of $classname() Nicolas Connault 19:55, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

+1. I think we agreed about that some time ago (when igniting some 2.0 developments) --Eloy Lafuente (stronk7) 00:03, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Inline comments

I have been using since ages ago "///" with outer alignment (I think that it was caused by some agreement long time ago, not my decision), for example:

function check_moodle_environment(..., ..., ..., ...) {

   $status = true;

/// This are cached per request

   static $result = true;
   static $env_results;
   static $cache_exists = false;

/// if we have results cached, use them

   if ($cache_exists) {
       $environment_results = $env_results;

/// No cache exists, calculate everything

   } else {
   /// Get the more recent version before the requested
       if (!$version = get_latest_version_available($version, $env_select)) {
           $status = false;
       }
       ....
       ....

Is that allowed, or only the "//" with inner alignment as commented at inline comments --Eloy Lafuente (stronk7) 00:03, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Trailing spaces

"Lines should not contain trailing spaces. In order to facilitate this convention, most editors can be configured to strip trailing spaces, such as upon a save operation. However, if you are editing an existing Moodle file and are planning to submit your changes to CVS, please switch off that feature so that whitespace changes do not pollute CVS history (other developers will have trouble viewing what you've done if every other line has been edited for whitespace)." Wouldn't the CVS history only get 'polluted' when someone fetched a file that DIDN'T follow this principle and returned it following the principle? Isn't that the price that has to be paid to clean things up? Otherwise this is pretty scary for someone who feels: "Great I can turn on my editor to autostrip those when saving. BUT I have to remember to turn that off if submitting it! (Or become a 'polluter'!)" And what happens if I have already saved it locally while working on (and striped those trailing spaces) and later try to commit it. Maybe my ignorance about CVS is making me pose a "silly" question. Jeff Forssell 07:17, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Jeff, the point with coding guidelines is that all new code must follow all the guidelines. With old bad code, mostly it is better to make the smallest change necessary when, for example, you fix a bug. That makes it clearest what the purpose of your change was. However, any line you do change while fixing the bug, you can then improve the coding style on that line.

Really good editors actually have an option "Strip trailing whitespace when saving a file - but only from lines that I have edited", which is what you really want.

The real way to avoid being a CVS polluter is to follow the best practice and always do a cvs diff and review all your changes (and if necessary amend them) before you do a CVS commit.--Tim Hunt 03:52, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Breaking up lines (e.g. huge arrays)

The coding style says to align the start of the following lines with the element in the first.. e.g.

   $myarray = array( 'fred' => 'blue',
                                    'tom' => 'green' );

I have to say I don't like this. While it looks very pretty it is a code maintenance nightmare. If you change (say) the array name you have to change every other line just to keep it looking nice. Surely if you must have it looking like this, do this...

   $myarray = array( 
       'fred' => 'blue',
       'tom' => 'green' );

It's the same issue with long lists of assignments - making all the RHSs line up. Completely unnecessary and just asking for errors. Don't encourage people to change code that they don't have to. If they don't touch it then they can't break it. --Howard Miller 13:52, 1 June 2009 (UTC)