Symbol Coding Guidelines

Regions

In long files, we use region and endregion tags to group related code. This makes these files easier to navigate.

region tags should always be surrounded by blank lines with one exception. If they are the first line of a new indent level, a preceding blank line is not required. endregion tags should always be surrounded by blank lines.

For example,

class Something:
    # region load

    ...

    # endregion

    # region save

    ...

    # endregion

Unit Testing

We prefer to structure unit tests in the Arrange / Act / Assert form in order to clearly delineate the code under test and the assertions being tested. Unit tests should contain comments breaking tests into the three sections when they are present. This is somewhat of a judgement call as some tests will not have all three sections.

For example,

# Arrange:
wordlist = ['alpha', 'beta', 'gamma', 'delta', 'epsilon', 'eta', 'theta', 'iota', 'kappa', 'lambda']
encoder = WordEncoder(wordlist)

# Act:
words = encoder.encode(0)

# Assert:
self.assertEqual(['alpha'], words)

For a more thorough discussion, please review this blog post: https://symbolblog.com/developer-guides/how-to-write-good-unit-tests.

Commenting / Documentation

Include a copyright statement at the top of each file. For new projects, use the default copyright contents. Copyright and all related rights should be waived for all contributions and via CC0 for all written works.

We document all public methods and classes with at least a sentence or two. For projects intended to be used as libraries by external developers, like SDKs, it’s recommended to document all parameters. For other projects, it’s often enough to just reference the parameters without documenting each in detail.

We believe that code should be for the most part self-documenting so use inline comments sparingly. Prefer well structured code and good names to inline comments. For example, Instead of using comments to delineate the steps of a complicated process, we prefer to refactor the code to have a well-named function per step. Inline comments can be used where the purpose of the code is not immediately clear to the reader.

Naming

Avoid unpronounceable names and abbreviations. Use a spell checker! codespell is recommended.

1. User defined types (class, struct, enum) should be UpperCamelCase and be nouns. [e.g. MyEnum, NodeEndpoint]

2. Function names should contain verbs [e.g. DoSomething, ``TryDoSomething`]

   Functions that fail by throwing exceptions should be optimistically named [e.g. DoSomething].

   Functions that fail by returning error codes should be prefixed with Try to indicate that something needs to be checked by the caller [e.g. TryDoSomething].

3. Boolean properties should generally begin with is, has or should.

   isOpen() instead of open()

4. Non-boolean properties should generally avoid get and set prefixes:

   value(12) instead of setValue(12)

   value() instead of getValue()

Logging

Not all frameworks support the full spectrum of logging levels. A description of logging levels from most to least severe follows:

• FATAL - Critical error that will require the immediate exit of the program.

• ERROR - Serious error that the node operator might need to act on but will not terminate the program.

• WARNING - Error of which the node operator should be made aware but unlikely requires action.

• IMPORTANT - Informational message with additional emphasis.

• INFO - Informational message logged by default.

• DEBUG - Verbose informational message that might be disabled by default.

• TRACE - Low level debugging information that will almost always be disabled.

Vertical Spacing

Generally, there should be a blank line after any de-indentation. One exception is the closing of braces.

For example,

if token:
    return token  # next line de-indents so should be blank

return {
    'token': token  # next line closes the prior brace, so shouldn't be blank
}

Trim trailing whitespace from all lines. End every file with a newline.

Horizontal Line Length

Maximum line length is 140 characters.

Token Spacing

• Always put a space after commas ‘,’, like:

  outputAsciiString(buffer, something, elsewhere);
  

  Not:

  outputAsciiString(buffer,something,elsewhere);
  

• Always put a space after semicolons ‘;’ in for, that is ok:

  for (size_t j = 0; j < foo.size() - 1; ++j)
  

  This one’s not:

  for (size_t j = 0;j < sections.size();++j)
  

for (size_t j = 0; j < foo.size() - x * 4; ++j)

for (size_t j=0; j<foo.size()-x*4; ++j)

Language Specific Guides