53 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
53 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
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.SH
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Appendix B
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.TL
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The Ten Commandments for C Programmers
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.AU
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Henry Spencer
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.IP 1
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Thou shalt run \fIlint\fR frequently and study its pronouncements with
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care, for verily its perception and judgement oft exceed thine.
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.IP 2
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Thou shalt not follow the NULL pointer, for chaos and madness await thee at
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its end.
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.IP 3
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Thou shalt cast all function arguments to the expected type if they are not
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of that type already, even when thou art convinced that this is unnecessary,
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lest they take cruel vengeance upon thee when thou least expect it.
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.IP 4
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If thy header files fail to declare the return types of thy library functions,
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thou shalt declare them thyself with the most meticulous care,
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lest grievous harm befall thy program.
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.IP 5
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Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays),
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for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type
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``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.
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.IP 6
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If a function be advertised to return an error code in the event of
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difficulties, thou shalt check for that code, yea, even though the checks
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triple the size of thy code and produce aches in thy typing fingers,
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for if thou thinkest ``it cannot happen to me'',
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the gods shall surely punish thee for thy arrogance.
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.IP 7
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Thou shalt study thy libraries and strive not to re-invent them without cause,
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that thy code may be short and readable and thy days pleasant and productive.
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.IP 8
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Thou shalt make thy program's purpose and structure
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clear to thy fellow man by using the
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One True Brace Style,
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even if thou likest it not,
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for thy creativity is better used in solving problems than in creating
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beautiful new impediments to understanding.
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.IP 9
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Thy external identifiers shall be unique in the first six characters,
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though this harsh discipline be irksome and the years of its necessity
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stretch before thee seemingly without end,
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lest thou tear thy hair out and go mad on that fateful day when
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thou desirest to make thy program run on an old system.
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.IP 10
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Thou shalt foreswear, renounce, and abjure the vile heresy which claimeth
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that ``All the world's a VAX'', and have no commerce with the
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benighted heathens who cling to this barbarous belief,
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that the days of thy program may be long even though the days of thy
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current machine be short.
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