C/C++

Coding

• Coding header files
• One-true-brace ident style
• Learn from examples and use coding approaches from third-party software

Commenting

• Place Doxygen comments in header files (before declarations of namespaces/classes/structs/typedefs/macros) and main source files (for documenting tools and tests)
• Use double forward slash for short comments in the code

C++

• Mixing C/C++
• Template C++ is preferrable from the point of view of runtime performance
• Use plain C unless you need flexible data structures or STL/Boost functionality
• Provide main API in C

General

• Don't use non-standard functions, like itoa
• Handling program arguments
• Dynamic loading of shared libraries

Creating libraries with Autotools

• includes (for the include directory): include_HEADERS = ...
• library: static lib_LIBRARIES = library.a or dynamic lib_LTLIBRARIES = library.la
• sources (internal C data structures and C++ template classes): library_X_SOURCES = library.h ..., where X = a or la
  • library.h is a precompiled header (contains common headers and symbols), which is to be included in most of source files of the library

For example, see:

• http://hcl.ucd.ie/repos/CPM/trunk/MPIBlib/benchmarks/Makefile.am
• http://hcl.ucd.ie/repos/CPM/trunk/MPIBlib/collectives/Makefile.am