[Github-comments] [geany/geany] Update HACKING for best practices (C99) (#1282)

[elextr]

elextr commented on this pull request.



> @@ -200,8 +200,18 @@ Coding
   moment, we want to keep the minimum requirement for GTK at 2.24 (of
   course, you can use the GTK_CHECK_VERSION macro to protect code using
   later versions).
-* Variables should be declared before statements. You can use
-  gcc's -Wdeclaration-after-statement to warn about this.
+* Variables should be declared (and initialized) as close as practical
+  to their first use. This reduces the chances of intervening code being
+  inserted between declaration and use, where the variable may be
+  uninitialized.
+* Variables should be defined within the smallest scope that is practical,
+  for example inside a conditional branch which uses them or in the
+  initialization part of a for loop.
+* Local variables that will not be modified should be marked as ``const``
+  to indicate intention. This allows the compiler to give a warning if
+  part of the code accidentally tries to change the value. This does not
+  apply to non-pointer parameters where it needlessly exposes the

Suggest that the fact that pointer params that do not change what is pointed to should be declared const is important enough for its own bullet point.

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