Style Guide

Maintaining a consistent coding conventions helps keep the Symphony codebase readable and maintainable. This style guide has been created to guide writing code for the project.

Guidelines

Naming convention

  • Class names are UpperCamelCase

    classdef MyAwesomeClass

  • Property names are lowerCamelCase

    properties
    figureHandle
    settings
end

  • Function/method names are lowerCamelCase

    function loadSettings(obj)

  • Event names are UpperCamelCase

    events
    SelectedParent
end

  • Local variables are lowerCamelCase

    function v = getProperty(obj, name)
    descriptor = obj.getPropertyDescriptor(name);
    v = descriptor.value;
end

Whitespace

  • Use 4 spaces instead of tabs (MATLAB editors default)

  • Separate blocks (properties, events, functions, etc.) with a single blank line

    properties
    someProperty
end

methods

    function delete(obj)
        obj.close();
    end

    function close(obj)
        obj.someProperty = [];
    end

end

  • Function/method declarations have no space between variables and surrounding brackets/parenthesis and no brackets unless required for multiple outputs

    function myFunction()

function out = myFunction(obj, in)

function [out1, out2, out3] = myFunction(obj, in1, in2)

  • Function/method calls match the spacing format of function declarations

    myFunction()

out = obj.myFunction(in)

[out1, out2, out3] = obj.myFunction(in1, in2)

  • Anonymous functions may have no space between input arguments

    @(in1,in2)in1 + in2;

  • Attributes have one space between keyword and attribute specification

    properties (Constant, Abstract)

methods (SetAccess = protected, Abstract)

  • In general, add a space after commas. Vector/cell indices and anonymous function inputs are possible exceptions.

Comments

  • Class comments should immediately follow the classdef line and be indented

    classdef MyAwesomeClass
    % The first sentence is important and should be a concise summary of the class. Now we include some more details and
    % it starts to flow on to the next line but it's always indented.

  • Function/method comments should immediately follow the function line and be indented

    function didSetPersistor(obj)
    % Override to perform actions after this protocol's persistor is set, e.g. assign property values based on
    % experiment entities. Note that persistor may be assigned as empty is there is no persistor.

  • Prefer putting property comments on the same line as the property and vertically aligning them with other comments in the same property block

    properties
    One     % First public property
    Two     % Second public property
end

Ordering

  • Group methods by task (not alphabetically or randomly)
  • Classes generally follow this block order:
    1. Events blocks
    2. Properties blocks
    3. Public methods
    4. Private methods
    5. Private functions

Miscellaneous

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