3 Quick Reference

3.1 Naming

  • Names must clearly represent the purpose of the named object. See "General Naming Rules".

  • Do not use names that are very similar to existing concepts, such as 'event'. See "General Naming Rules".

  • Do not use the names of symbols declared in standard header files as internal symbols. See "Function and Data Names".

  • Overloading function or type names is not allowed. "Name Space Rules".

  • Use the correct opposites when naming. See "Common Opposites in Variable Names".

  • Use standard abbreviations only. See "Abbreviation Usage".

  • Use industry standard acronyms only. See "Acronym Usage".

  • Any nonstandard abbreviation or acronym must be defined in the file header of any file using the abbreviation or acronym. See "Abbreviation Usage" and "Glossary".

  • There is no limit to name lengths. A length of 10 to 30 characters is ", recommended. See "File Names" & "Identifiers that are always reserved".

  • File names must not start with numbers. See "File Names".

  • Each include file name must be unique. See "Include Files".

  • File, function, variable, enumeration, and data structure elements must have names like the following: EachWordIsDistinctEvenAcronymsLikeAcpi. See "Identifiers".

  • Don't capitalize all letters in acronyms. MyPCIAddress is hard to read, compared to MyPciAddress, especially if acronyms are mixed with numbers, like My870PCIBus0BDF. See "Acronym Usage".

  • Acronyms in comments and documentation shall follow English rules and be capitalized. See "Acronym Usage".

  • Functional macros, #defines, and typedefs must have names like: EACH_WORD_IS_DISTINCT_EVEN_ACRONYMS_LIKE_ACPI See "Type and Macro Names".

  • Hungarian naming is not allowed. See "Hungarian Prefixes".

  • Global data names must be prefaced with a 'g'. Example: gMyGuid. See "Global & Module Variables".

  • Module global data names must be prefaced with an 'm'. Example: mMyGuid. See "Global & Module Variables".

3.2 Formatting

3.2.1 Formatting: General Rules

  • Tab characters are not allowed. See "General Rules".

  • All indentation (tabs) is two spaces. See "General Rules".

3.2.2 Formatting: Vertical spacing

  • Use blank lines and comments to group blocks of related code. See "Vertical Spacing".

  • Never put more than one statement per line. See "Vertical Spacing".

  • Never put the code and conditional on one line. See "Vertical Spacing

  • Never put more than one declaration per line. UINT8 MyData1, MyData2; is illegal. See "Vertical Spacing".

  • Always put open braces '{' on their own line for functions or multi-line predicate expressions. All other uses put the brace following the conditional. See "Vertical Spacing".

  • Always put close braces '}' on their own line, indented to match the first line of the construct. Exceptions are else, else if, and do-while code. See "Vertical Spacing".

3.2.3 Formatting: Horizontal spacing

  • Always put space before and after binary operators. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Never put space between unary operators and the operand. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Always put space after ',', or ';' if more code follows. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Always put space before a '(' except for '(('. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Always put space before a '{' if it is not on its own line. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Never put spaces around '.' or '->' operators. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Never put a space between array operands and '['. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Always Line up continued lines with the element being continued. See "Horizontal Spacing".

3.2.4 Formatting: Predicate Expressions

  • Always use parentheses rather than relying on "Horizontal Spacing" (above) operator precedence. "Predicate Expressions".

  • Booleans do not need to be compared with TRUE or FALSE. See "Predicate Expressions".

  • Pointers must be explicitly compared to NULL. See "Predicate Expressions".

  • Numbers must be explicitly compared to another number. See "Predicate Expressions".

3.3 Files: General Rules

  • Do not use tabs, only use Spaces. "General Rules".

  • Unless explicitly stated otherwise, spaces (white space) may be one or more space characters long. See "General Rules".

  • Files may only contain the ASCII characters 0x0A, 0x0D, and 0x20 through 0x7E, inclusive. See "General Rules".

  • Do not produce lines that exceed 120 columns in your source files. See "General Rules".

  • New files shall not use #pragma except for #pragma pack(#). See "General Rules".

    • Ported files may retain pre-existing #pragmas. See "General Rules".

    • Ported files may contain #pragmas to disable prevalent warning messages.

  • All lines must end with CRLF (Carriage Return Line Feed); 0x0D followed by 0x0A.

  • All files must end with CRLF. See "General Rules".

  • Every new file must begin with a "File Heading" comment block. See "File Heading"

3.3.1 Files: Horizontal Spacing

  • Always put space before and after binary operators. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Do not put space between unary operators and their object. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Horizontal spacing for multi-line function calls should line up one or two tab stops after the beginning of the function name. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Always put space after commas or semicolons that separate items. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Always put space before an open parenthesis, except for macro definitions. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Put space before an open brace if it is not on its own line. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Do not put space around the structure member, '.', and pointer, '->', operators. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Do not put space before the open brackets, '[' of array subscripts. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Align a continuation line with the part of the line that it continues. See "Horizontal Spacing".

  • Use parentheses instead of relying upon knowledge of C precedence ordering. See "Horizontal Spacing".

3.3.2 Include Files

  • Every header file must have a '#ifndef FILE_NAME_H_' and '#endif' guard surrounding all code. See "Include Files".

    • The #ifndef must be the first line of code following the file header comment.

    • The #endif must appear alone on the last line in the file.

  • All C include files shall use the same extension and it shall be .h. See "Include Files".

  • Include statements shall not contain absolute paths or paths that contain '..'. See "#include"

  • Functional macros are discouraged except for includes, debug, CR, and linked lists. See "Macros".

  • Macros should be defined with the maximum use of parentheses to remove any possible ambiguity. See "Macros".

  • Include files must contain either public or private data, not both. See "Include Files".

  • Include files must not contain code generating statements. See "Include Files".

  • Every parameter must have the proper IN, OUT, OPTIONAL, etc., modifiers. See "Function Definition Layout".

  • Only use UEFI data types. Use of standard C data types is prohibited. See "Common Data Types".

3.3.3 Code Files

  • Only use UEFI data types. Use of standard C data types is prohibited. See "Common Data Types".

  • Code files should not contain #define and typedef statements.

  • Do not use inline assembler in the source files. See "General Rules".

  • Function definitions, as well as if, for, while, and switch statements, must follow strict rules. See "Function Definition Layout", "Flow Control Statements, and "Introducing Doxygen".

  • Enumerated types must end with a maximum element. See "Enumerated Types".

  • Enumerated types should begin with a minimum element.

  • Structures are always defined with a typedef format. See "Structure Definitions".

  • The open and closing braces of a function definition are in column one and on their own lines. See "Function Definition Layout".

3.3.4 Code Files: Vertical Spacing

  • There shall be only one statement per line. See "Vertical Spacing".

  • Open braces, '{', shall be on the same line as the closing parenthesis, ')', of one-line predicate expressions. See "Vertical Spacing".

  • Open braces, '{', shall be on a line by themselves and aligned with the first character of the associated flow control statement when following a multi-line predicate expression. See "Vertical Spacing".

  • Close braces, '}', always go at the beginning of the last line of the body. See "Vertical Spacing".

  • A close brace may share a line with the else {, else if () {, and do-while constructs. See "Vertical Spacing".

  • Each sub-expression of a complex predicate expression must be on a separate line. See "Vertical Spacing".

3.4 Documentation

3.4.1 Documentation: Commenting

  • Comments must explain why the code does what it does. See "Comments".

  • Every file must have a properly formatted file header. See "File Heading".

  • Every function and functional macro must have a correct function header in both the source and include files. See "Macros" & "Function Headings".

3.4.1.1 Documentation: Internal comments

  • Local comments must use the C++ comment style, '//'. See "Internal Comments".

  • Local comments must have a blank line before the comment block. See "Internal Comments".

  • Comments must be indented to match the code. See "Internal Comments".

  • If a comment applies to more than one block of code, there should be a blank line after the comment. See "Internal Comments".

  • If a comment applies to a single block of code, there should not be a blank line separating the comment from the code. See "Internal Comments".

3.4.1.2 Documentation: What not to comment

  • No comment markers are allowed in code, including:

    • BUGBUG
    • Your name
    • Your initials
    • Special markers, such as FIX_THIS, TEST . See "What NOT to Comment".

  • Use your bug tracking system to track bugs instead of markers within the code. If you really must mark the code, use Doxygen's @bug or @todo commands. See "What NOT to Comment".

3.4.2 Doxygen

  • Doxygen comments are used to document global and file-scope elements. See "Global Comments".

  • C-style comment blocks are of the form:

    /** Brief Description.
 *  ... More text ...
*/

  • C++ style comment blocks begin with ///.

  • Comments precede the semantic element they document. See "Special Documentation Blocks".

  • The special form, ///< ..., allows documentation to be after the documented element. See"Putting Documentation after Members".

  • Comment blocks automatically start with a brief description and end at the first period. See "Special Documentation Blocks" .

  • The most frequently used Doxygen commands are: ( See "Special Commands").

@file [<name>]
@param[in, out] <parameter name> { parameter description }
@retval <return value> { description }
@sa { references }
@test { description of a test case }