pound-emu_pound/CONTRIBUTING.md

Core Principles

1. Performance First

Performance is the top priority in all aspects of development. Always ask yourself: "Is the CPU wasting cycles running this code? If so, how do I fix it?".

2. Memory Management

• Heap Allocation Functions Ban: Using memory allocation functions like malloc(), free(), new, and delete is prohibited. Use our custom memory allocator in src/host/memory/arena.h. Allocating memory should only be done in main.c during initialization, otherwise your code will be rejected.

3. Safety First

1. Barr C: See the Barr C Style Guide PDF file in the root directory for making Pound's code as safe as possible.
2. Error Handling: Every return code from a function must be checked and handled appropriately.
3. Assertions: Use assertions to guarantee behavior whenever possible. Watch this video for an explanation: https://youtube.com/shorts/M-VU0fLjIUU
4. Static Analysis: Use the SonarQube static analyzer to catch potential bugs early in development.

4. Documentation

Document every struct and function throughout our codebase. This is a tedious task, but it will be greatly appreciated by current and future programmers working on this project.

Style Conventions

See the Barr C style guide for reference. Use clang-format at the root directory to create Barr C compliant code. Here are some non Barr C specific rules:

1. Constant First in Equality Tests:

   // Non-compliant
   if (var == constant)
   if (pointer == NULL)
   
   // Compliant
   if (constant == var)
   if (NULL == pointer)