# GNAT Coding Style

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GNAT Coding Style
A Guide for GNAT Developers

GNAT, The GNU Ada 95 Compiler

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being “GNU Free Documentation License”, with the Front-Cover Texts being “GNAT Coding Style” and “A Guide for GNAT Developers” and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”.

Next: Lexical Elements, Previous: Top, Up: Top

## 1 General

Most of GNAT is written in Ada using a consistent style to ensure readability of the code. This document has been written to help maintain this consistent style, while having a large group of developers work on the compiler.

For the coding style in the C parts of the compiler and run time, see the GNU Coding Guidelines.

This document is structured after the Ada Reference Manual. Those familiar with that document should be able to quickly lookup style rules for particular constructs.

Next: Declarations and Types, Previous: General, Up: Top

## 2 Lexical Elements

### 2.1 Character Set and Separators

- The character set used should be plain 7-bit ASCII. The only separators allowed are space and the end-of-line sequence. No other control character or format effector (such as `HT`, `VT`, `FF`) should be used. The normal end-of-line sequence is used, which may be `LF`, `CR/LF` or `CR`, depending on the host system. An optional `SUB` (`16#1A#`) may be present as the last character in the file on hosts using that character as file terminator.
- Files that are checked in or distributed should be in host format.
- A line should never be longer than 79 characters, not counting the line separator.
- Lines must not have trailing blanks.
- Indentation is 3 characters per level for `if` statements, loops, and `case` statements. For exact information on required spacing between lexical elements, see file style.adb.

### 2.2 Identifiers

- Identifiers will start with an upper case letter, and each letter following an underscore will be upper case. Short acronyms may be all upper case. All other letters are lower case. An exception is for identifiers matching a foreign language. In particular, we use all lower case where appropriate for C.
- Use underscores to separate words in an identifier.
- Try to limit your use of abbreviations in identifiers. It is ok to make a few abbreviations, explain what they mean, and then use them frequently, but don't use lots of obscure abbreviations. An example is the `ALI` word which stands for Ada Library Information and is by convention always written in upper-case when used in entity names.

                       procedure Find_ALI_Files;

- Don't use the variable name `I`, use `J` instead; `I` is too easily confused with `1` in some fonts. Similarly don't use the variable `O`, which is too easily mistaken for the number `0`.

### 2.3 Numeric Literals

- Numeric literals should include underscores where helpful for readability.

                      1_000_000
                      16#8000_000#
                      3.14159_26535_89793_23846

### 2.4 Reserved Words

- Reserved words use all lower case.

                       return else

- The words `Access`, `Delta` and `Digits` are capitalized when used as `attribute_designator`.

### 2.5 Comments

- A comment starts with `--` followed by two spaces). The only exception to this rule (i.e. one space is tolerated) is when the comment ends with a single space followed by `--`. It is also acceptable to have only one space between `--` and the start of the comment when the comment is at the end of a line, after some Ada code.
- Every sentence in a comment should start with an upper-case letter (including the first letter of the comment).
- When declarations are commented with “hanging” comments, i.e. comments after the declaration, there is no blank line before the comment, and if it is absolutely necessary to have blank lines within the comments these blank lines do have a `--` (unlike the normal rule, which is to use entirely blank lines for separating comment paragraphs). The comment starts at same level of indentation as code it is commenting.

                       z : Integer;
                       --  Integer value for storing value of z
                       --
                       --  The previous line was a blank line.

- Comments that are dubious or incomplete, or that comment on possibly wrong or incomplete code, should be preceded or followed by `???`.
- Comments in a subprogram body must generally be surrounded by blank lines. An exception is a comment that follows a line containing a single keyword (`begin`, `else`, `loop`):

                       begin
                          --  Comment for the next statement

                          A := 5;

                          --  Comment for the B statement

                          B := 6;
                       end;

- In sequences of statements, comments at the end of the lines should be aligned.

                        My_Identifier := 5;      --  First comment
                        Other_Id := 6;           --  Second comment

- Short comments that fit on a single line are not ended with a period. Comments taking more than a line are punctuated in the normal manner.
- Comments should focus on why instead of what. Descriptions of what subprograms do go with the specification.
- Comments describing a subprogram spec should specifically mention the formal argument names. General rule: write a comment that does not depend on the names of things. The names are supplementary, not sufficient, as comments.
- Do not put two spaces after periods in comments.

Next: Expressions and Names, Previous: Lexical Elements, Up: Top

## 3 Declarations and Types

- In entity declarations, colons must be surrounded by spaces. Colons should be aligned.

                        Entity1   : Integer;
                        My_Entity : Integer;

- Declarations should be grouped in a logical order. Related groups of declarations may be preceded by a header comment.
- All local subprograms in a subprogram or package body should be declared before the first local subprogram body.
- Do not declare local entities that hide global entities.
- Do not declare multiple variables in one declaration that spans lines. Start a new declaration on each line, instead.
- The `defining_identifier`s of global declarations serve as comments of a sort. So don't choose terse names, but look for names that give useful information instead.
- Local names can be shorter, because they are used only within one context, where comments explain their purpose.

Next: Statements, Previous: Declarations and Types, Up: Top

## 4 Expressions and Names

- Every operator must be surrounded by spaces. An exception is that this rule does not apply to the exponentiation operator, for which there are no specific layout rules. The reason for this exception is that sometimes it makes clearer reading to leave out the spaces around exponentiation.

                       E := A * B**2 + 3 * (C - D);

- Use parentheses where they clarify the intended association of operands with operators:

                       (A / B) * C

Next: Subprograms, Previous: Expressions and Names, Up: Top

## 5 Statements

### 5.1 Simple and Compound Statements

- Use only one statement or label per line.
- A longer `sequence_of_statements` may be divided in logical groups or separated from surrounding code using a blank line.

### 5.2 If Statements

- When the `if`, `elsif` or `else` keywords fit on the same line with the condition and the `then` keyword, then the statement is formatted as follows:

                        if condition then
                           ...
                        elsif condition then
                           ...
                        else
                           ...
                        end if;

  When the above layout is not possible, `then` should be aligned with `if`, and conditions should preferably be split before an `and` or `or` keyword a follows:

                        if long_condition_that_has_to_be_split
                          and then continued_on_the_next_line
                        then
                           ...
                        end if;

  The `elsif`, `else` and `end if` always line up with the `if` keyword. The preferred location for splitting the line is before `and` or `or`. The continuation of a condition is indented with two spaces or as many as needed to make nesting clear. As an exception, if conditions are closely related either of the following is allowed:

                     if x = lakdsjfhlkashfdlkflkdsalkhfsalkdhflkjdsahf
                          or else
                        x = asldkjhalkdsjfhhfd
                          or else
                        x = asdfadsfadsf
                     then
                       ...
                     end if;

                     if x = lakdsjfhlkashfdlkflkdsalkhfsalkdhflkjdsahf or else
                        x = asldkjhalkdsjfhhfd                         or else
                        x = asdfadsfadsf
                     then
                       ...
                     end if;

- Conditions should use short-circuit forms (`and then`, `or else`).
- Complex conditions in `if` statements are indented two characters:

                      if this_complex_condition
                        and then that_other_one
                        and then one_last_one
                      then
                         ...
                      end if;

- Every `if` block is preceded and followed by a blank line, except where it begins or ends a `sequence_of_statements`.

                        A := 5;

                        if A = 5 then
                           null;
                        end if;

                        A := 6;

### 5.3 Case Statements

- Layout is as below. For long `case` statements, the extra indentation can be saved by aligning the `when` clauses with the opening `case`.

                       case expression is
                          when condition =>
                             ...
                          when condition =>
                             ...
                       end case;

### 5.4 Loop Statements

When possible, have `for` or `while` on one line with the condition and the `loop` keyword.

                     for J in S'Range loop
                        ...
                     end loop;

If the condition is too long, split the condition (see “If statements” above) and align `loop` with the `for` or `while` keyword.

                    while long_condition_that_has_to_be_split
                      and then continued_on_the_next_line
                    loop
                       ...
                    end loop;

If the `loop_statement` has an identifier, it is laid out as follows:

                    Outer : while not condition loop
                       ...
                    end Outer;

### 5.5 Block Statements

- The `declare` (optional), `begin` and `end` words are aligned, except when the `block_statement` is named. There is a blank line before the `begin` keyword:

                      Some_Block : declare
                         ...

                      begin
                         ...
                      end Some_Block;

Next: Packages, Previous: Statements, Up: Top

## 6 Subprograms

### 6.1 Subprogram Declarations

- Do not write the `in` for parameters, especially in functions:

                      function Length (S : String) return Integer;

- When the declaration line for a procedure or a function is too long to fit the entire declaration (including the keyword procedure or function) on a single line, then fold it, putting a single parameter on a line, aligning the colons, as in:

                     procedure Set_Heading
                        (Source : String;
                         Count  : Natural;
                         Pad    : Character := Space;
                         Fill   : Boolean   := True);

  In the case of a function, if the entire spec does not fit on one line, then the return may appear after the last parameter, as in:

                      function Head
                        (Source : String;
                         Count  : Natural;
                         Pad    : Character := Space) return String;

  Or it may appear on its own as a separate line. This form is preferred when putting the return on the same line as the last parameter would result in an overlong line. The return type may optionally be aligned with the types of the parameters (usually we do this aligning if it results only in a small number of extra spaces, and otherwise we don't attempt to align). So two alternative forms for the above spec are:

                      function Head
                        (Source : String;
                         Count  : Natural;
                         Pad    : Character := Space)
                         return   String;

                      function Head
                        (Source : String;
                         Count  : Natural;
                         Pad    : Character := Space)
                         return String;

### 6.2 Subprogram Bodies

- Function and procedure bodies should usually be sorted alphabetically. Do not attempt to sort them in some logical order by functionality. For a sequence of subrpgroams specs, a general alphabetical sorting is also usually appropriate, but occasionally it makes sense to group by major function, with appropriate headers.
- All subprograms have a header giving the function name, with the following format:

                      -----------------
                      -- My_Function --
                      -----------------

                      procedure My_Function is
                      begin
                        ...
                      end My_Function;

  Note that the name in the header is preceded by a single space, not two spaces as for other comments.

- Every subprogram body must have a preceding `subprogram_declaration`.
- A sequence of declarations may optionally be separated from the following begin by a blank line. Just as we optionally allow blank lines in general between declarations, this blank line should be present only if it improves readability. Generally we avoid this blank line if the declarative part is small (one or two lines) and we include it if the declarative part is long.
- If the declarations in a subprogram contain at least one nested subprogram body, then just before the `begin` of the enclosing subprogram, there is a comment line and a blank line:

                    --  Start of processing for Enclosing_Subprogram

                    begin
                      ...
                    end Enclosing_Subprogram;

Next: Program Structure, Previous: Subprograms, Up: Top

## 7 Packages and Visibility Rules

- All program units and subprograms have their name at the end:

                      package P is
                         ...
                      end P;

- We will use the style of `use`-ing `with`-ed packages, with the context clauses looking like:

                      with A; use A;
                      with B; use B;

- Names declared in the visible part of packages should be unique, to prevent name clashes when the packages are `use`d.

                      package Entity is
                         type Entity_Kind is ...;
                         ...
                      end Entity;

- After the file header comment, the context clause and unit specification should be the first thing in a `program_unit`.

Next: GNU Free Documentation License, Previous: Packages, Up: Top

## 8 Program Structure and Compilation Issues

- Every GNAT source file must be compiled with the -gnatg switch to check the coding style. (Note that you should look at style.adb to see the lexical rules enforced by -gnatg).
- Each source file should contain only one compilation unit.
- Filenames should be 8 or fewer characters, followed by the `.adb` extension for a body or `.ads` for a spec.
- Unit names should be distinct when “krunch”ed to 8 characters (see krunch.ads) and the filenames should match the unit name, except that they are all lower case.

Next: Index, Previous: Program Structure, Up: Top

## GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.2, November 2002

         Copyright © 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
         59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA

         Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
         of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

0. PREAMBLE

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   This License is a kind of “copyleft”, which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software.

   We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.

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9. TERMINATION

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10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

    The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.

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## ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:

           Copyright (C)  year  your name.
           Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
           under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
           or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
           with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
           A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
           Free Documentation License''.

If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the “with...Texts.” line with this:

             with the Invariant Sections being list their titles, with
             the Front-Cover Texts being list, and with the Back-Cover Texts
             being list.

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.

If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free software.

Previous: GNU Free Documentation License, Up: Top

## Index

- -gnatg option (to gcc): Program Structure
- Alignment (in a block statement): Statements
- Alignment (in a loop statement): Statements
- Alignment (in an `if` statement): Statements
- Alignment (in comments): Lexical Elements
- Alignment (in declarations): Declarations and Types
- ASCII: Lexical Elements
- Blank lines (in an `if` statement): Statements
- Blank lines (in comments): Lexical Elements
- Blank lines (in subprogram bodies): Subprograms
- Block statement: Statements
- `case` statements: Statements
- Casing (for identifiers): Lexical Elements
- Casing (for reserved words): Lexical Elements
- Casing (in comments): Lexical Elements
- Character set: Lexical Elements
- Comments: Lexical Elements
- Declarationa and Types: Declarations and Types
- End-of-line: Lexical Elements
- Expressions and names: Expressions and Names
- FDL, GNU Free Documentation License: GNU Free Documentation License
- File name length: Program Structure
- GNU Free Documentation License: GNU Free Documentation License
- Hiding of outer entities: Declarations and Types
- Identifiers: Lexical Elements
- `if` statement: Statements
- Indentation: Lexical Elements
- Indentation (in `if` statements): Statements
- krunch.ads file: Program Structure
- Lexical elements: Lexical Elements
- Line length: Lexical Elements
- Loop statements: Statements
- Name clash avoidance: Packages
- Numeric literals: Lexical Elements
- Operators: Expressions and Names
- Packages: Packages
- Parenthesization of expressions: Expressions and Names
- Program structure: Program Structure
- Reserved words: Lexical Elements
- Separators: Lexical Elements
- Short-circuit forms: Statements
- Simple and compound statements: Statements
- Statements: Statements
- style.adb file: Program Structure
- style.adb file: Lexical Elements
- Subprogram bodies: Subprograms
- Subprograms: Subprograms
- Underscores: Lexical Elements
- `use` clauses: Packages

## Table of Contents

- 1 General
- 2 Lexical Elements
  - 2.1 Character Set and Separators
  - 2.2 Identifiers
  - 2.3 Numeric Literals
  - 2.4 Reserved Words
  - 2.5 Comments
- 3 Declarations and Types
- 4 Expressions and Names
- 5 Statements
  - 5.1 Simple and Compound Statements
  - 5.2 If Statements
  - 5.3 Case Statements
  - 5.4 Loop Statements
  - 5.5 Block Statements
- 6 Subprograms
  - 6.1 Subprogram Declarations
  - 6.2 Subprogram Bodies
- 7 Packages and Visibility Rules
- 8 Program Structure and Compilation Issues
- GNU Free Documentation License
- ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
- Index