r2419 - /1.2/docs/latex/develop.tex -- March 28, 2006 - 04:38

Author: bugman
Date: Tue Mar 28 04:37:43 2006
New Revision: 2419

URL: http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/relax?rev=2419&view=rev
Log:
Wrote the 'Variable, function, and class names' subsection of the development 
chapter of the manual.


Modified:
    1.2/docs/latex/develop.tex

Modified: 1.2/docs/latex/develop.tex
URL: 
http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/relax/1.2/docs/latex/develop.tex?rev=2419&r1=2418&r2=2419&view=diff
==============================================================================
--- 1.2/docs/latex/develop.tex (original)
+++ 1.2/docs/latex/develop.tex Tue Mar 28 04:37:43 2006
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@
 If these lines are deleted, the bug will be removed.  Another way to fix the 
problem is to install newer versions of the run-time files (which will pretty 
much do the same thing).
 
 
+
 % Doc strings.
 \subsection{Doc strings}
 \index{doc string|textbf}
@@ -70,12 +71,23 @@
 These should be set to no more than 100 characters long including all 
leading white space.  The standard Python convention of a one line 
description separated from a detailed description by an empty line should be 
adhered to.  All functions should have a docstring describing in detail the 
structure and organisation of the code.
 
 
+
 % Variable, function, and class names.
 \subsection{Variable, function, and class names}
 
-Copy email!
-
-These naming conventions should be observed at all times.
+In relax, a mixture of both camel case (eg. CamelCase) and lower case with 
underscores is used.  Despite the variablilty, there are fixed rules which 
should be adhered to.  These naming conventions should be observed at all 
times.
+
+
+% Variables and functions.
+\subsubsection{Variables and functions}
+
+For both variables and functions, lower case with underscores between words 
is always used.  This is for readability as the convention is much more 
fluent than camel case.  A few rare exceptions exist, an example is the 
Brownian diffusion tensor parameter of anisotropy, $\Diff_a$, which is 
referenced as \texttt{self.relax.data.diff[run].Da}.  As a rule though, all 
new variable or function names should be kept as lower case.
+
+
+% Classes.
+\subsubsection{Classes}
+
+For classes, relax uses a mix of camel case (for example all the 
\texttt{RelaxError} objects) and underscores (for example 
\texttt{Model\_free}).  The first letter in all cases is always capitalised.  
Generally the camel case is reserved for very low level classes which are 
involved in the program's infrastructure.  Examples include the RelaxError 
code, the threading code, and the \texttt{self.relax.data} code.  All the 
data analysis specific code, generic code, interface code, etc uses 
underscores between the words with only the first letter capitalised.  One 
exception is the space mapping class \texttt{OpenDX}, the reason being that 
the program is called `OpenDX'.