@node perlstyle, perlpod, perltrap, Top
@unnumberedsec NAME
perlstyle - Perl style guide

@unnumberedsec DESCRIPTION
Each programmer will, of course, have his or her own preferences in
regards to formatting, but there are some general guidelines that will
make your programs easier to read, understand, and maintain.

The most important thing is to run your programs under the -w
flag at all times.  You may turn it off explicitly for particular
portions of code via the $^W variable if you must.  You should
also always run under @code{use strict} or know the reason why not.
The @code{use sigtrap} and even @code{use diagnostics} pragmas may also prove
useful.

Regarding aesthetics of code lay out, about the only thing Larry
cares strongly about is that the closing curly brace of
a multi-line BLOCK should line up with the keyword that started the construct.
Beyond that, he has other preferences that aren@'t so strong:

@itemize @bullet
@item 
4-column indent.

@item 
Opening curly on same line as keyword, if possible, otherwise line up.

@item 
Space before the opening curly of a multi-line BLOCK.

@item 
One-line BLOCK may be put on one line, including curlies.

@item 
No space before the semicolon.

@item 
Semicolon omitted in "short" one-line BLOCK.

@item 
Space around most operators.

@item 
Space around a "complex" subscript (inside brackets).

@item 
Blank lines between chunks that do different things.

@item 
Uncuddled elses.

@item 
No space between function name and its opening parenthesis.

@item 
Space after each comma.

@item 
Long lines broken after an operator (except "and" and "or").

@item 
Space after last parenthesis matching on current line.

@item 
Line up corresponding items vertically.

@item 
Omit redundant punctuation as long as clarity doesn@'t suffer.

@end itemize
Larry has his reasons for each of these things, but he doesn@'t claim that
everyone else@'s mind works the same as his does.

Here are some other more substantive style issues to think about:

@itemize @bullet
@item 
Just because you @emph{CAN} do something a particular way doesn@'t mean that
you @emph{SHOULD} do it that way.  Perl is designed to give you several
ways to do anything, so consider picking the most readable one.  For
instance


@example
open(FOO,$foo) || die "Can@'t open $foo: $!";
@end example

is better than


@example
die "Can@'t open $foo: $!" unless open(FOO,$foo);
@end example

because the second way hides the main point of the statement in a
modifier.  On the other hand


@example
print "Starting analysis\n" if $verbose;
@end example

is better than


@example
$verbose && print "Starting analysis\n";
@end example

because the main point isn@'t whether the user typed -v or not.

Similarly, just because an operator lets you assume default arguments
doesn@'t mean that you have to make use of the defaults.  The defaults
are there for lazy systems programmers writing one-shot programs.  If
you want your program to be readable, consider supplying the argument.

Along the same lines, just because you @emph{CAN} omit parentheses in many
places doesn@'t mean that you ought to:


@example
return print reverse sort num values %array;
return print(reverse(sort num (values(%array))));
@end example

When in doubt, parenthesize.  At the very least it will let some poor
schmuck bounce on the % key in @strong{vi}.

Even if you aren@'t in doubt, consider the mental welfare of the person
who has to maintain the code after you, and who will probably put
parentheses in the wrong place.

@item 
Don@'t go through silly contortions to exit a loop at the top or the
bottom, when Perl provides the last operator so you can exit in
the middle.  Just "outdent" it a little to make it more visible:


@example
LINE:
        for (;;) @{
            statements;
          last LINE if $foo;
            next LINE if /^#/;
            statements;
        @}
@end example

@item 
Don@'t be afraid to use loop labels--they@'re there to enhance
readability as well as to allow multilevel loop breaks.  See the
previous example.

@item 
Avoid using grep() (or map()) or @`backticks@` in a void context, that is,
when you just throw away their return values.  Those functions all
have return values, so use them.  Otherwise use a foreach() loop or
the system() function instead.

@item 
For portability, when using features that may not be implemented on
every machine, test the construct in an eval to see if it fails.  If
you know what version or patchlevel a particular feature was
implemented, you can test $] ($PERL_VERSION in English) to see if it
will be there.  The Config module will also let you interrogate values
determined by the @strong{Configure} program when Perl was installed.

@item 
Choose mnemonic identifiers.  If you can@'t remember what mnemonic means,
you@'ve got a problem.

@item 
While short identifiers like $gotit are probably ok, use underscores to
separate words.  It is generally easier to read $var_names_like_this than
$VarNamesLikeThis, especially for non-native speakers of English. It@'s
also a simple rule that works consistently with VAR_NAMES_LIKE_THIS.

Package names are sometimes an exception to this rule.  Perl informally
reserves lowercase module names for "pragma" modules like integer and
strict.  Other modules should begin with a capital letter and use mixed
case, but probably without underscores due to limitations in primitive
file systems@' representations of module names as files that must fit into a
few sparse bytes.

@item 
You may find it helpful to use letter case to indicate the scope
or nature of a variable. For example:


@example
$ALL_CAPS_HERE   constants only (beware clashes with perl vars!)
$Some_Caps_Here  package-wide global/static
$no_caps_here    function scope my() or local() variables
@end example

Function and method names seem to work best as all lowercase.
E.g., $obj->as_string().

You can use a leading underscore to indicate that a variable or
function should not be used outside the package that defined it.

@item 
If you have a really hairy regular expression, use the @code{/x} modifier and
put in some whitespace to make it look a little less like line noise.
Don@'t use slash as a delimiter when your regexp has slashes or backslashes.

@item 
Use the new "and" and "or" operators to avoid having to parenthesize
list operators so much, and to reduce the incidence of punctuation
operators like @code{&&} and @code{||}.  Call your subroutines as if they were
functions or list operators to avoid excessive ampersands and parentheses.

@item 
Use here documents instead of repeated print() statements.

@item 
Line up corresponding things vertically, especially if it@'d be too long
to fit on one line anyway.


@example
$IDX = $ST_MTIME;
$IDX = $ST_ATIME           if $opt_u;
$IDX = $ST_CTIME           if $opt_c;
$IDX = $ST_SIZE            if $opt_s;

mkdir $tmpdir, 0700     or die "can@'t mkdir $tmpdir: $!";
chdir($tmpdir)      or die "can@'t chdir $tmpdir: $!";
mkdir @'tmp@',   0777   or die "can@'t mkdir $tmpdir/tmp: $!";
@end example

@item 
Always check the return codes of system calls.  Good error messages should
go to STDERR, include which program caused the problem, what the failed
system call and arguments were, and VERY IMPORTANT) should contain the
standard system error message for what went wrong.  Here@'s a simple but
sufficient example:


@example
opendir(D, $dir)         or die "can@'t opendir $dir: $!";
@end example

@item 
Line up your translations when it makes sense:


@example
tr [abc]
   [xyz];
@end example

@item 
Think about reusability.  Why waste brainpower on a one-shot when you
might want to do something like it again?  Consider generalizing your
code.  Consider writing a module or object class.  Consider making your
code run cleanly with @code{use strict} and -w in effect.  Consider giving away
your code.  Consider changing your whole world view.  Consider... oh,
never mind.

@item 
Be consistent.

@item 
Be nice.

@end itemize
