Paul's Pile of Papers
This is a collection of papers I snarfed from the net. I didn't write
any of them, but I did convert them to HTML. In fact, this is some of
the first HTML work I ever did.
Most of them are available in PostScript (look for the "PS").
- The 10 Commandments for C Programmers
- How to avoid shooting yourself in the foot.
- Recommended C Style and Coding Standards
(PS)
- The legendary Indian Hill style guidelines.
- Notes on Programming in C
(PS)
- More thought on C style.
- Notes on Writing Portable Programs in C
(PS)
- The "portability" discussed here is mostly between different versions of
UNIX, but there's a lot here that's globally relevant.
- How To Steal Code, or Inventing The Wheel Only Once
(PS)
- "If you re-invent the square wheel, you will not benefit when somebody
else rounds off the corners."
- News Need Not Be Slow
(PS)
- A case study in how to optimize code.
- Can't Happen or /* NOTREACHED */ or Real Programs Dump Core
(PS)
- Referenced by several of the above papers, very UNIX-specific.
- Rationale for the ANSI C Standard
(PS)
- You can't get the actual Standard on-line, but you can get this
"what-were-they-thinking" document.
- ethernet.txt
- Don Provan explains ethernet frame types.
For a concrete example of C coding standards, see the one used by
the GNU Project.
Check out the
FAQ web site.
Paul Selkirk,
paul@psgd.org
Last updated 19 July 1999 (previous update 14-Nov-97, 05-Jun-95).