coding-style.md

Coding style

General

• Avoid global state. Prefer passing dependencies explicitly.
• No magic numbers — use named constants or enums.
• Match the style of the surrounding code when in doubt.

C++

Naming

Kind	Convention	Example
Types, classes	PascalCase	NodeId, AudioBus
Functions, methods	camelCase	addToHead, isGroup
Member variables	m_ prefix	m_first, m_engine
Enum constants	kMethcla_ prefix	kMethcla_NodePlacementHeadOfGroup
Macros	METHCLA_ prefix	METHCLA_EXPORT

Types and variables

• Use const on variables, parameters, and member functions wherever possible.
• Use constexpr instead of const for compile-time constants.
• Use nullptr, not NULL or 0 for pointers.
• Use size_t for sizes and counts. Cast once at the boundary; don't scatter casts.
• Use static_cast for explicit conversions. Avoid C-style casts.

Classes

• Mark overriding methods override. Do not also mark them virtual.

Headers

• Header guards: #ifndef METHCLA_<PATH>_HPP_INCLUDED / #define / #endif.
• Include order: own header first, then internal headers, then third-party, then standard library. Each group separated by a blank line.

Namespaces

• Methcla:: for C++ API.
• Anonymous namespace for translation-unit-local helpers instead of static.

Formatting

Enforced by clang-format. Configuration is in .clang-format. Run pre-commit run --all-files rather than formatting manually.

C API

• All public symbols prefixed methcla_ (functions) or Methcla_ (types).
• Enum constants prefixed kMethcla_.
• typedef struct and typedef enum — no anonymous structs.
• extern "C" guards in every public header.
• METHCLA_EXPORT on all exported symbols.
• snake_case for all identifiers.
• Header guards: #ifndef METHCLA_<NAME>_H_INCLUDED.

Python

• Type annotations on all function signatures.
• pathlib.Path for file paths, not string concatenation.
• subprocess.run(..., check=True) — don't silently swallow non-zero exit codes.
• Keep scripts short and single-purpose. Extract helpers only when reused.

Formatting

Enforced by black. Run pre-commit run --all-files rather than formatting manually.