The ten commandments for C programmers
Thou shalt run lint frequently and study its pronounce- ments with
care, for verily its perception and judge- ment oft exceed thine.
Thou shalt not follow the NULL pointer, for chaos and madness await
thee at its end.
Thou shalt cast all function arguments to the expected type if they
are not of that type already, even when thou art convinced that this is
unnecessary, lest they take cruel vengeance upon thee when thou least
expect it.
If thy header files fail to declare the return types of thy library
functions, thou shalt declare them thyself with the most meticulous
care, lest grievous harm befall thy program.
Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all
arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type
``supercalifragilis- ticexpialidocious''.
If a function be advertised to return an error code in the event of
difficulties, thou shalt check for that code, yea, even though the
checks triple the size of thy code and produce aches in thy typing
fingers, for if thou thinkest "it cannot happen to me", the gods shall
surely punish thee for thy arrogance.
Thou shalt study thy libraries and strive not to re- invent them
without cause, that thy code may be short and readable and thy days
pleasant and productive.
Thou shalt make thy program's purpose and structure clear to thy
fellow man by using the One True Brace Style, even if thou likest it
not, for thy creativity is better used in solving problems than in
creating beautiful new impediments to understanding.
Thy external identifiers shall be unique in the first six
characters, though this harsh discipline be irksome and the years of its
necessity stretch before thee seemingly without end, lest thou tear thy
hair out and go mad on that fateful day when thou desirest to make thy
program run on an old system.
Thou shalt foreswear, renounce, and abjure the vile heresy which
claimeth that ``All the world's a VAX'', and have no commerce with the
benighted heathens who cling to this barbarous belief, that the days of
thy program may be long even though the days of thy current machine be short.
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