Hi,

I left recently a comment or two about programming style. I think that's a
really important subject. Good style conveys the intent of the code, much
more than anything else. Good style reduces the need for comments (which
can and often will get out of sync with the code). Good style makes
designing and debugging code a lot easier and reduces the probability of
errors. Good style is a tremendous time saver and helpful communication
tool.

There's no simple rule for good style, with the possible exception of this
one: it should be consistent. Among others, consistency makes spotting
errors a lot easier: if something is wrong in the code, there is a bigger
chance that it will also be "visually wrong". You can scan your newspaper
as fast as you can because it has a consistent layout. (There are better
and less good examples out there for this :)

So IMO the time you need to develop your own coding style is well spent.
This is something that can't be easily learned; it has to be developed.
It's more an art or a craft than a science.

A collection of some thoughts about style in C programming can be found
here http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/lab/secondyear/cstyle/cstyle.html. It's rather
Unix-centric (no surprise when talking about C), but since this is not
about copying somebody's style, but rather about understanding what issues
people address with style and find one's own preferences how to most
efficiently address these issues, this is still helpful even for 8 bit
embedded C programming with a non-standard compiler.

And there's always the classic Code Complete by McConnell. Not really
targeted to any language or environment, it's one of the few really generic
classics about the part of programming that goes beyond churning out code.
The site for the (current) 2nd edition is http://www.cc2e.com/ (I can't
vouch for the 2nd edition; I only know the 1st. But there is no reason to
assume it be not at least as good.) It's probably beyond what is of
interest to the average hobbyist, but it's definitely recommended for
everyone who programs for a living.

Gerhard

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist