programming_standards.txt

Programming standards for SIXTE

** Versioning **

Increasing the version number works by adding a commented "tag" in git,
which has the form "v1.2.3". This would look like

git tar v1.2.3 -m "version 1.2.3"

[you can also add a tag to an older commit in retrospect if you/we
forgot to change the version number]

If you use something like "git log --decorate" or "git log --decorate
--oneline" to look at the git repository, these tags will be shown
alongside the commit message.

If sixte is then compiled in this git repository (or a tar ball built
from this repository), it will contain this version number. 

Also, if you have additional commits, without any tag, the number of
commits since the last "version tag" will be counted plus the 4 first
digits of the git hash number.

Lastly, if you have still uncommited changes in your repository, the
string "-dirty" will be added. This is very important as it shows you
are using a version where some files have been change.



** Data structures **

Each data structure ([NAME]) containing any pointers should have a
constructor (new[NAME]) and a desctructor (destroy[NAME]). The
constructor should either allocate memory for the pointers or
initialize them with NULL. The constructor returns a pointer to the
initialized data structure. It also has an error status parameter
which is set to EXIT_FAILURE if any serious problems occur. The
destructor should release the allocated memory. Both constructor and
destructor use the corresponding routines of underlying data
structures.