.. _coding_style: Coding Style ============ .. attention:: This is copied verbatim from the old IPython wiki and is currently under development. Much of the information in this part of the development guide is out of date. This document describes our coding style. Coding style refers to the following: - How source code is formatted (indentation, spacing, etc.) - How things are named (variables, functions, classes, modules, etc.) General coding conventions -------------------------- In general, we follow the standard Python style conventions as described in Python's `PEP 8 `__, the official Python Style Guide. Other general comments: - In a large file, top level classes and functions should be separated by 2 lines to make it easier to separate them visually. - Use 4 spaces for indentation, **never** use hard tabs. - Keep the ordering of methods the same in classes that have the same methods. This is particularly true for classes that implement similar interfaces and for interfaces that are similar. Naming conventions ------------------ For naming conventions, we also follow the guidelines of `PEP 8 `__. Some of the existing code doesn't honor this perfectly, but for all new and refactored IPython code, we'll use: - All ``lowercase`` module names. Long module names can have words separated by underscores (``really_long_module_name.py``), but this is not required. Try to use the convention of nearby files. - ``CamelCase`` for class names. - ``lowercase_with_underscores`` for methods, functions, variables and attributes. - Implementation-specific *private* methods will use ``_single_underscore_prefix``. Names with a leading double underscore will *only* be used in special cases, as they makes subclassing difficult (such names are not easily seen by child classes). - Occasionally some run-in lowercase names are used, but mostly for very short names or where we are implementing methods very similar to existing ones in a base class (like ``runlines()`` where ``runsource()`` and ``runcode()`` had established precedent). - The old IPython codebase has a big mix of classes and modules prefixed with an explicit ``IP`` of ``ip``. This is not necessary and all new code should not use this prefix. The only case where this approach is justified is for classes or functions which are expected to be imported into external namespaces and a very generic name (like Shell) that is likely to clash with something else. However, if a prefix seems absolutely necessary the more specific ``IPY`` or ``ipy`` are preferred. - All JavaScript code should follow these naming conventions as well. Attribute declarations for objects ---------------------------------- In general, objects should declare, in their *class*, all attributes the object is meant to hold throughout its life. While Python allows you to add an attribute to an instance at any point in time, this makes the code harder to read and requires methods to constantly use checks with hasattr() or try/except calls. By declaring all attributes of the object in the class header, there is a single place one can refer to for understanding the object's data interface, where comments can explain the role of each variable and when possible, sensible defaults can be assigned. If an attribute is meant to contain a mutable object, it should be set to ``None`` in the class and its mutable value should be set in the object's constructor. Since class attributes are shared by all instances, failure to do this can lead to difficult to track bugs. But you should still set it in the class declaration so the interface specification is complete and documented in one place. A simple example: :: class Foo(object): # X does..., sensible default given: x = 1 # y does..., default will be set by constructor y = None # z starts as an empty list, must be set in constructor z = None def __init__(self, y): self.y = y self.z = [] New files --------- When starting a new Python file for IPython, you can use the `following template <./template.py>`__ as a starting point that has a few common things pre-written for you.