In general, completed documented files are a good place to look to understand project style in general.
Use the types from ultratypes.h
, not the standard C types: i.e. u8
,s8
,s16
,u16
,s32
,u32
,f32
rather than char
, short
, int
, float
and their signed
/unsigned
varieties.
We always write our enums and structs as typedef
s. (Usually one can't use an enum typedef as a function argument since enum typedefs are implicitly s32
.)
Names are "big-endian": the most significant/largest part of the system goes first, e.g. DM_RAVINE_STATE_ACTIVE
rather than DM_RAVINE_ACTIVE_STATE
.
Type | Style | Example |
---|---|---|
Local variables | camelCase | yawToPlayer |
Global variables | gCamelCase | gSaveContext |
Static variables1 | sCamelCase | sZeroVec |
Struct members | camelCase | actionFunc |
Struct names | PascalCase | EnFirefly |
Enum types | PascalCase | EnFireflyMainType |
Enum values | SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE | AT_ON |
Defines/macros | SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE | SCREEN_WIDTH ,ABS(x) |
Functions | SystemName_FunctionName | Actor_SpawnAsChild |
Files | snake_case | z_en_firefly.c |
Action functions are usually named with a simple present-tense verb or verb phrase: {...}_Talk
, {...}_Wait
, {...}_FallToGround
, etc. Setup functions are Setup{name of action}
.
Ideally names should be both short and clear, although it's better to be clear than short.
A lot of formatting is done by clang-format, such as
- indent is 4 spaces, tabs are not used
- case labels indented
- 120 column limit
- brackets go on the same line (
if (1) {
) - pointer goes on type (
s32* var;
nots32 *var;
)
There are various other conventions that it does not catch, though:
-
Blank line between declarations and code:
s32 var; func();
-
combine declarations and definitions if possible:
s32 var = 0; func();
instead of
s32 var; var = 0; func();
-
blank lines between switch cases if they're long (use your judgement).
- timers
- colours and alpha
- Usually array accesses and sizes
- angles (for now; the code itself is very inconsistent with round hex, round dec, and degrees)
- Addresses
- Bitmasks (i.e.
& 0x80
etc.) - Struct offset comments
Numbers below 10
/0xA
do not need the 0x
if by themselves in code.
If a function returns only 0
or 1
, and is used as a boolean (i.e. in conditionals), replace the returns by false
and true
. (We do not use bool
, partly because is a C99 thing, and partly because the original has used almost every integer type as a boolean return at some point!)
Floats usually need an f
on the end to match, or IDO will use doubles. Our floats are always of the form 1.0f
, even when the decimal part is zero.
-
Spacing out conditional or loop blocks from surrounding code often makes them easier to read.
-
Avoid assigning or mutating variables in conditionals if possible (including
++
/--
), avoid side effects in the loop increment slot (i.e. incrementing/assigning to loop variables is fine, something like*a = b++
is not). -
We always use
{}
on conditional/loop blocks, even if they're one line (clang-tidy will enforce this). -
When conditions are
&&
d or||
d together, use brackets around each that includes an arithmetic comparison or bitwise operator (i.e. not!var
orfunc()
, but ones with==
or&
etc.) -
Flag checks or functions that return booleans do not need the
== 0
/!= 0
. -
Prefer
if-else
overif { return; }
, i.e.if (cond) { foo(); } else { bar(); }
over
if (cond) { foo(); return; } bar();
Exception: After Actor_Kill
or sometimes setting the action function, if it makes sense to do so (this expresses the finality a bit better).
Become familiar with the various defines and enums we have available. There are too many to list all of them here, but the following are common:
- Those in
macros.h
ABS
,ABS_ALT
,CLAMP
and friends,BINANG_*
, which are used for angles, especially when there's a lot ofs16
casts around
MTXMODE
for many of thesys_matrix
functions- CollisionCheck flags:
AT_ON
and so on. Pick the appropriate one for the collider type. - Actor flags,
ACTOR_FLAG_N
.
Damage flag enums are not being used at present: we want to wait until we have a better idea what the common groupings should be.
Pre-C99, commas at the end of the last item in an enum will cause a compiler warning, so leave them off.
All compound flag lists (e.g. ACTOR_FLAG_HOSTILE | ACTOR_FLAG_FRIENDLY
) should be listed in ascending order
- It's better to not hardcode array sizes (easier to mod)
- Use
sizeof
orARRAY_COUNT
/ARRAY_COUNTU
where it makes sense, e.g. in loops that are using an array. - clang-format sometimes does weird things to array formatting. Experiment with and without a comma after the last element and see which looks better.
In some particular instances, IDO requires the function argument play
to be cast to a second variable of the same type to match. In these particular instances, the function argument should be renamed to play2
and than this play2
just assigned to a stack variable called play
. This cast should occur before the actor THIS
cast is made. For example in z_en_firefly.c
void EnFirefly_Update(Actor* thisx, PlayState* play2) {
PlayState* play = play2;
EnFirefly* this = THIS;
In other places the cast is actually not explictly needed, but a stack pad
variable is still needed. For this there should just be a stack variable called pad
of type s32
before the actor THIS
cast. For example in z_bg_goron_oyu
void BgGoronOyu_Init(Actor* thisx, PlayState* play) {
s32 pad;
BgGoronOyu* this = THIS;
CollisionHeader* colHeader = NULL;
In general, pads should be s32
, or s16
/s8
if required.
Documentation includes:
- Naming functions
- Naming struct variables
- Naming data
- Naming local variables
- Describing the general purpose of the file
- Describing any unusual, interesting or strange features of how the file or parts of its content work
- Labelling and explaining bugs
- Making enums or defines for significant numbers for the file, like actor params values.
- Naming the contents of the asset file(s) the file may use (for an actor, the object(s) it uses)
If you are not sure what something does, it is better to leave it unnamed than name it wrongly. It is fine to make a note of something you are not sure about when PRing, it means the reviewers will pay special attention to it.
We use comments for:
-
Top of file: a short description of the system. For actors there is already a brief description of our current understanding, but feel free to add to it.
-
For function descriptions, we use multiline comments,
/** * Describe what the function does */
These are optional: if you think the code is clear enough, you do not need to put a comment. You can use Doxygen formatting if you think it adds something, but it is also not required.
-
If something in a function is strange, or unintuitive, do leave a comment explaining what's going on. We use
//
for this. -
We also use
//
for temporary comments above a function. Feel free to useTODO:
in these if appropriate. -
A bug should be commented with an
//! @bug Bug description
above the code that causes the bug.
This section mostly applies to actors.
All functions should go in the main C file in the same order as the assembly (the latter is required to match anyway). (We may make exceptions for particularly large files with a particular organisational structure, but we ask that you check on Discord first before doing this)
- If in doubt, leave all the data at the top of the file. Reviewers will decide for you.
- Data must go in the same order as in the assembly files, but is only constrained by other data, not functions or rodata.
- Some data has to be inline static to match. Generally it's better to not use
static
on data outside funtions until the file is matching, sincestatic
data is left out of the mapfile and this makes debugging harder. - This is even more true of bss, where we have trouble with IDO unpredictably reordering it in certain files.
- For small arrays or simple data that is used in only one function, we usually inline it, if it fits in the ordering.
- Generally data that is only used by the draw functions is put down near them: this is one of the few consistencies in ordering of actors' functions.
-
Actors that bitpack params should have macros made for each access or write that is made.
z_en_dg.h
has an undocumented example,#define ENDG_GET_FC00(thisx) (((thisx)->params & 0xFC00) >> 0xA) #define ENDG_GET_3E0(thisx) (((thisx)->params & 0x3E0) >> 5)
while
z_en_firefly.h
has a documented one,#define KEESE_INVISIBLE (1 << 0xF) #define KEESE_GET_MAIN_TYPE(thisx) ((thisx)->params & 0x7FFF)
-
In a similar manner, actors that use
home.rot.(x|y|z)
like params should also macros made for accesses and writes. (See, e.g.z_obj_bean.h
.) -
Stuff that only the actor itself will use goes in the C file unless needed in the header.
-
Anything actor-specific that might be used by another file goes in the header, in particular params access macros.
-
Anything that is expected to have widespread use should go in
macros.h
or an appropriate header ininclude
.
Are covered in the ZAPD extraction xml spec. Symbol names are gPrefixDescriptionSuffix
for symbols accessed from the header (they will be global). Texture OutNames are in snake_case since they are filenames.
All of the above is subservient to matching. Sometimes IDO cares about newlines, for example.
If you are not sure about any of the above, please ask in Discord.
Footnotes
-
including in-function static ↩