Programming in C++
Rules and Recommendations

Copyright (C) 1990-1992 by

Ellemtel Telecommunication Systems Laboratories

Box 1505
125 25 Alvsjo
Sweden
Tel: int + 46 8 727 30 00

Permission is granted to any individual or institution to use, copy, modify, and distribute this document, provided that this complete copyright and permission notice is maintained intact in all copies.

Ellemtel Telecommunication Systems Laboratories makes no representations about the suitability of this document or the examples described herein for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without any expressed or implied warranty.

Original translation from Swedish by Joseph Supanich.

The layout of this document has been modifyed by Per Cederqvist so that it is more readable on a 80-column screen. I.e. paragraphs has been refilled.

Additional layout modifications by Gary Shea (shea@cs.ukans.edu) and Mats Henricson (mats.henricson@eua.ericsson.se).

Conversion to HTML with links by Robert M. Adams (radams@khis.com).

The appearance of indicates a comment by R. M. Adams. The symbol is a link to that comment.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Terminology
3. General Recommendations
4. Source Code in Files
   1. Structure of Code
   2. Naming Files
   3. Comments
   4. Include Files
5. Assigning Names
6. Style
   1. Classes
   2. Functions
   3. Compound Statements
   4. Flow Control Statements
   5. Pointers and References
   6. Miscellaneous
7. Classes
   1. Considerations Regarding Access Rights
   2. Inline Functions
   3. Friends
   4. const Member Functions
   5. Constructors and Destructors
   6. Assignment Operators
   7. Operator Overloading
   8. Member Function Return Types
   9. Inheritance
8. Class Templates
9. Functions
   1. Function Arguments
   2. Function Overloading
   3. Formal Arguments
   4. Return Types and Values
   5. Inline Functions
   6. Temporary Objects
   7. General
10. Constants
11. Variables
12. Pointers and References
13. Type Conversions
14. Flow Control Structures
15. Expressions
16. Memory Allocation
17. Fault Handling
18. Portable Code
    1. Data Abstraction
    2. Sizes of Types
    3. Type Conversions
    4. Data Representation
    5. Underflow/Overflow
    6. Order of Execution
    7. Temporary Objects
    8. Pointer Arithmetic
19. References
20. Summary of Rules
21. Summary of Recommendations
22. Summary of Portability Recommendations
23. Appendix Form for Rule Change Request (not included in this hypertext)