Merge remote-tracking branch 'remotes/awilliam/tags/vfio-updates-20161017.0' into...

[qemu.git] / CODING_STYLE

diff --git a/CODING_STYLE b/CODING_STYLE
index 3c6978f836d6ffcb528743fd482273b97cb18008..f53180bf3fff844071ba7786eba5d233a562f427 100644 (file)
--- a/CODING_STYLE
+++ b/CODING_STYLE
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ patches before submitting.
 Of course, the most important aspect in any coding style is whitespace.
 Crusty old coders who have trouble spotting the glasses on their noses
 can tell the difference between a tab and eight spaces from a distance
-of approximately fifteen parsecs.  Many a flamewar have been fought and
+of approximately fifteen parsecs.  Many a flamewar has been fought and
 lost on this issue.
 
 QEMU indents are four spaces.  Tabs are never used, except in Makefiles
@@ -31,7 +31,11 @@ Do not leave whitespace dangling off the ends of lines.
 
 2. Line width
 
-Lines are 80 characters; not longer.
+Lines should be 80 characters; try not to make them longer.
+
+Sometimes it is hard to do, especially when dealing with QEMU subsystems
+that use long function or symbol names.  Even in that case, do not make
+lines much longer than 80 characters.
 
 Rationale:
  - Some people like to tile their 24" screens with a 6x4 matrix of 80x24
@@ -39,6 +43,8 @@ Rationale:
    let them keep doing it.
  - Code and especially patches is much more readable if limited to a sane
    line length.  Eighty is traditional.
+ - The four-space indentation makes the most common excuse ("But look
+   at all that white space on the left!") moot.
  - It is the QEMU coding style.
 
 3. Naming