Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!dftsrv!mimsy!tove.cs.umd.edu!cml From: cml@tove.cs.umd.edu (Christopher Lott) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Automated tools for verifying C style compliance? Message-ID: <27806@mimsy.umd.edu> Date: 19 Nov 90 02:16:41 GMT References: <4990@tekfdi.FDI.TEK.COM> <5815@stpstn.UUCP> Sender: news@mimsy.umd.edu Reply-To: cml@tove.cs.umd.edu (Christopher Lott) Organization: The University of Maryland Dept of Computer Science Lines: 23 In article <4990@tekfdi.FDI.TEK.COM> kyleb@tekfdi.FDI.TEK.COM (Kyle Bernard) writes: >I've recently read over the C style guidelines from giza.cis.ohio-state.edu >(128.146.8.61) and it seems their usefulness is very limited due to the lack >of automated compliance verficiation tools. Gosh, a tool for verifying compliance to a style guide? I think a code review may be the "tool" (certainly the technology) that will accomplish this best. I see a style guide as a way for an organization to produce code that is equally legible to all, and will hopefully be more easily maintained within that environment. Hopefully the style will be accepted and used cheerfully by all, so that all will learn both to read AND write code in the chosen style. On the surface, you can consider purely formatting aspects, but at deeper levels (such as, for example, interfaces for all central lib routines) some style guidance may enhance the coherence of a software system - making it look like it was designed and built by a single mind. chris... -- Christopher Lott Dept of Comp Sci, Univ of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 cml@cs.umd.edu 4122 AV Williams Bldg 301-405-2721