---
title: "Code Style"
summary: "Read this, before contributing!"
---

The following code style should be applied to the whole noxos codebase.
Pull Requests that don't follow this code style will be rejected.

# Naming conventions
- **structs** are suffixed with **_T**
- **typedefs** are suffixed with **_t**
- **enums** are suffixed with **_E**
- **global**  variables are prefixed with **g_**

Everything is **snake_case**.

# Code readability
To make the code as readable and self explaining as possible, there are a few patterns that should be used.

## Avoid abbreviations
Give your variables, functions, etc. meaningfully names.
The times of 80-char wide screens are over, feel free to use that space :D

Example: `sym_at_idx` -> `get_symbol_at_index`

But you're not forced to (anything) write out everything.
For example the **Interrupt Descriptor Table** is simply referred to as **idt** (this abbreviation is btw standard).

## Avoid indentation nesting
In a perfect codebase, the maximum indention level would be 3.
The goal of NoxOS is not to be a perfect codebase, but please avoid huge indention nesting.
To achieve this, you can break parts into extra functions and/or use the early return pattern.

Example (definitely written 100% sober):
```c
bool likes_pigs (void* a) {
    if (a != NULL) {
        if (a == 0xACAB) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}
```
->
```c
bool likes_pigs (void* a) {
    if (a == NULL)   { return true; }
    if (a != 0xACAB) { return true; }
    
    return false;
}
```

## align declarations

Please align declarations, definitions, etc like in the example:
```c
char      am_i_a_variable  = '?';
uint64_t  number           = 0;
bool      i_waste_bits     = true;
```

## namespaces
Unlike C++, C has no namespaces.
To achieve the goal of namespaces, please prefix your functions, structs, etc. with the "namespace" they are in.

Example: `out_byte` -> `io_out_byte`