Re: [PATCH v1] CONTRIBUTING.d/style/c: Add coding style for the example programs

["G. Branden Robinson" <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>]

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At 2025-02-17T23:16:59+0100, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 17, 2025 at 09:24:11PM +0100, Günther Noack wrote:
> > > +Name
> > > +       style/c - C coding style
> > 
> > "...for code examples in man pages"?
> 
> I didn't specify, because it also applies to programs written in commit
> messages (for example to prove that a patch is correct).  It applies to
> every C program that I have to look at as maintainer of this project
> (and actually, of any project that I comaintain too).

Maybe you need a name for this class/category.

"Colomar C coding style guide"?

> The definitions go all after main().  The prototypes go all before
> main().  The benefit is that you can get an overview of what is
> defined without having to look at the implementation.

My understanding is that function prototypes were added to the C
language to permit type-checking of function call arguments (and return
values) _across_ translation units--specifically.  So if a function is
static, or has no callers outside of its translation unit,[1] the
compiler can be expected to exercise whatever type-checking facilities
it has within that translation unit.  (I admit not knowing whether the
pre-ANSI Ritchie compiler or pcc were this careful.  I'll brace myself.)

Regards,
Branden

[1] ...in which case the correct thing to do is _declare it static_, but
    hey, this is C, man, we're "terse".  More modern languages like Go
    and Rust have started to recognize that having symbols be public
    and/or mutable by default are worse choices for modularity and
    concurrency.  Even Ada was not quite this careful.

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