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doc: introduce categories to Cpp style guide
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fhinkel committed Dec 3, 2017
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## Table of Contents

* [Left-leaning (C++ style) asterisks for pointer declarations](#left-leaning-c-style-asterisks-for-pointer-declarations)
* [2 spaces of indentation for blocks or bodies of conditionals](#2-spaces-of-indentation-for-blocks-or-bodies-of-conditionals)
* [4 spaces of indentation for statement continuations](#4-spaces-of-indentation-for-statement-continuations)
* [Align function arguments vertically](#align-function-arguments-vertically)
* [Initialization lists](#initialization-lists)
* [CamelCase for methods, functions, and classes](#camelcase-for-methods-functions-and-classes)
* [snake\_case for local variables and parameters](#snake_case-for-local-variables-and-parameters)
* [snake\_case\_ for private class fields](#snake_case_-for-private-class-fields)
* [Space after `template`](#space-after-template)
* [Type casting](#type-casting)
* [Memory allocation](#memory-allocation)
* [`nullptr` instead of `NULL` or `0`](#nullptr-instead-of-null-or-0)
* [Do not include `*.h` if `*-inl.h` has already been included](#do-not-include-h-if--inlh-has-already-been-included)
* [Avoid throwing JavaScript errors in nested C++ methods](#avoid-throwing-javascript-errors-in-nested-c-methods)
* [Ownership and Smart Pointers](#ownership-and-smart-pointers)
* [Formatting](#formatting)
* [Left-leaning (C++ style) asterisks for pointer declarations](#left-leaning-c-style-asterisks-for-pointer-declarations)
* [2 spaces of indentation for blocks or bodies of conditionals](#2-spaces-of-indentation-for-blocks-or-bodies-of-conditionals)
* [4 spaces of indentation for statement continuations](#4-spaces-of-indentation-for-statement-continuations)
* [Align function arguments vertically](#align-function-arguments-vertically)
* [Initialization lists](#initialization-lists)
* [CamelCase for methods, functions and classes](#camelcase-for-methods-functions-and-classes)
* [snake\_case for local variables and parameters](#snake_case-for-local-variables-and-parameters)
* [snake\_case\_ for private class fields](#snake_case_-for-private-class-fields)
* [Space after `template`](#space-after-template)
* [Memory Management](#memory-management)
* [Memory allocation](#memory-allocation)
* [Use `nullptr` instead of `NULL` or `0`](#use-nullptr-instead-of-null-or-0)
* [Ownership and Smart Pointers](#ownership-and-smart-pointers)
* [Others](#others)
* [Type casting](#type-casting)
* [Do not include `*.h` if `*-inl.h` has already been included](#do-not-include-h-if--inlh-has-already-been-included)
* [Avoid throwing JavaScript errors in nested C++ methods](#avoid-throwing-javascript-errors-in-nested-c-methods)

Unfortunately, the C++ linter (based on
[Google’s `cpplint`](https://github.com/google/styleguide)), which can be run
explicitly via `make lint-cpp`, does not currently catch a lot of rules that are
specific to the Node.js C++ code base. This document explains the most common of
these rules:

## Formatting

## Left-leaning (C++ style) asterisks for pointer declarations

`char* buffer;` instead of `char *buffer;`
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -128,23 +133,50 @@ class FancyContainer {
...
}
```
## Type casting
- Always avoid C-style casts (`(type)value`)
- `dynamic_cast` does not work because RTTI is not enabled
- Use `static_cast` for casting whenever it works
- `reinterpret_cast` is okay if `static_cast` is not appropriate
## Memory Management
## Memory allocation
- `Malloc()`, `Calloc()`, etc. from `util.h` abort in Out-of-Memory situations
- `UncheckedMalloc()`, etc. return `nullptr` in OOM situations
## `nullptr` instead of `NULL` or `0`
## Use `nullptr` instead of `NULL` or `0`
What it says in the title.
## Ownership and Smart Pointers
"Smart" pointers are classes that act like pointers, e.g.
by overloading the `*` and `->` operators. Some smart pointer types can be
used to automate ownership bookkeeping, to ensure these responsibilities are
met. `std::unique_ptr` is a smart pointer type introduced in C++11, which
expresses exclusive ownership of a dynamically allocated object; the object
is deleted when the `std::unique_ptr` goes out of scope. It cannot be
copied, but can be moved to represent ownership transfer.
`std::shared_ptr` is a smart pointer type that expresses shared ownership of a
dynamically allocated object. `std::shared_ptr`s can be copied; ownership
of the object is shared among all copies, and the object
is deleted when the last `std::shared_ptr` is destroyed.
Prefer to use `std::unique_ptr` to make ownership
transfer explicit. For example:
```cpp
std::unique_ptr<Foo> FooFactory();
void FooConsumer(std::unique_ptr<Foo> ptr);
```

Never use `std::auto_ptr`. Instead, use `std::unique_ptr`.

## Others

## Type casting

- Always avoid C-style casts (`(type)value`)
- `dynamic_cast` does not work because RTTI is not enabled
- Use `static_cast` for casting whenever it works
- `reinterpret_cast` is okay if `static_cast` is not appropriate

## Do not include `*.h` if `*-inl.h` has already been included

Do
Expand All @@ -169,27 +201,3 @@ A lot of code inside Node.js is written so that typechecking etc. is performed
in JavaScript.

Using C++ `throw` is not allowed.

## Ownership and Smart Pointers

"Smart" pointers are classes that act like pointers, e.g.
by overloading the `*` and `->` operators. Some smart pointer types can be
used to automate ownership bookkeeping, to ensure these responsibilities are
met. `std::unique_ptr` is a smart pointer type introduced in C++11, which
expresses exclusive ownership of a dynamically allocated object; the object
is deleted when the `std::unique_ptr` goes out of scope. It cannot be
copied, but can be moved to represent ownership transfer.
`std::shared_ptr` is a smart pointer type that expresses shared ownership of a
dynamically allocated object. `std::shared_ptr`s can be copied; ownership
of the object is shared among all copies, and the object
is deleted when the last `std::shared_ptr` is destroyed.

Prefer to use `std::unique_ptr` to make ownership
transfer explicit. For example:

```cpp
std::unique_ptr<Foo> FooFactory();
void FooConsumer(std::unique_ptr<Foo> ptr);
```
Never use `std::auto_ptr`. Instead, use `std::unique_ptr`.

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