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C Elements of Style by Oualline Recommended

ISBN: 0-13-148222-X       Publisher: Prentice Hall       Pages: 265pp       Price: £17-50

Categories:   style     advanced c     advanced c++

Reviewed by Adrian Wontroba in C Vu 6-2 (Jan 1994)

1. To make programs readable, both to the author and to others
   
2. To make programs reliable

This attractive and readable book is divided into two parts and a couple of appendices. It could have been packed into far fewer pages.

In Part 1 (160 pages - the bulk of the book) he covers program organisation, commenting techniques, module design, variable names, format (i.e. where to put white space, but with no mention of formatters such as cb or indent), the preprocessor, C++ style, makefile design and user-friendly programming. His general approach is to discuss a topic, give examples and the possible consequences of good and bad style and derive some rules, such as 'Rule 4-13: Avoid side effects'. Each chapter ends with a summary of the rules. In general his advice is good. However, I do have some qualms about ensuring uniqueness of common names by prefixing them with an underscore.

Part 2 is a style manual - a 30 page ready reference precis of Part 1.

The appendices contain example programs and the rules again (what I tell you three times is true?). Like all good books, it also has a table of contents and an index.

Overall, a worthwhile book which should help to reduce the incidence of 2 am debugging sessions. It does however have much more cost effective (i.e. free) competitors, such as the Indian Hill Style Guide in its various incarnations and Rob Pike's 10 page collection of short essays. Yes, more candidates for the issue disc.