The GNU Coding Standards were written by Richard Stallman and other GNU Project volunteers. Their purpose is to make the GNU system clean, consistent, and easy to install. This document can also be read as a guide to writing portable, robust and reliable programs. It focuses on programs written in C, but many of the rules and principles are useful even if you write in another programming language. The rules often state reasons for writing in a certain way.
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hirak99
16 years 8 weeks 6 days 6 hours ago
It's *not* better to use C over C++!
"For example, if you write your program in C++, people will have to install the GNU C++ compiler in order to compile your program." - Well, those who have C but don't have C++ will be doing themselves a favor when installing it!
"C has one other advantage over C++ and other compiled languages: more people know C, so more people will find it easy to read and modify the program if it is written in C." - Are you sure? Knowing C++ does not automatically imply the person will be comfortable reading C programs.
Unless what you're working on is a really small piece, so that even if you write it in C it doesn't become a complicated mess, it is *not* a better idea to use C instead of C++.
Sorry, but I lost all desires to go any farther in the article after I read that C advise.
aboutblank
16 years 8 weeks 12 hours 18 min ago
The GNU coding guidelines
The GNU coding guidelines were written a couple of decades ago. It has been updated since it was initially published. When it was initially published, these guidelines made a lot of sense to strongly adhere to it. Now that software technology has advanced, the rationale for these things are less persuasive than they were before. It's not a bad thing to loosely adhere to these current guidelines unless there is a good reason to do otherwise.