propellor/doc/coding_style.mdwn

If you do nothing else, avoid use of partial functions from the Prelude!
`import Utility.PartialPrelude` helps avoid this by defining conflicting
functions for all the common ones. Also avoid `!!`, it's partial too.

Use tabs for indentation.

Code should make sense with any tab stop setting, but 8 space tabs are
the default. With 8 space tabs, code should not exceed 80 characters
per line. (With larger tabs, it may of course.)

Use spaces for layout. For example, here spaces (indicated with `.`)
are used after the initial tab to make the third test line up with
the others.

		when (foo_test || bar_test ||
		......some_other_long_test)
			print "hi"

As a special Haskell-specific rule, "where" clauses are indented with two
spaces, rather than a tab. This makes them stand out from the main body
of the function, and avoids excessive indentation of the where cause content.
The definitions within the where clause should be put on separate lines,
each indented with a tab.

	main = do
		foo
		bar
		foo
	  where
		foo = ...
		bar = ...

Note for emacs users: You can put the following snippet into a file called 
`.dir-locals.el` at root of propellor's source tree to ensure these indentation
rules are enforced:

	((nil . ((indent-tabs-mode . t)
	         (tab-width . 4)
	         (fill-column . 80)))
	 ;; Warn about spaces used for indentation:
	 (haskell-mode . ((eval . (highlight-regexp "^ *")))))


Where clauses for instance definitions and modules tend to appear at the end
of a line, rather than on a separate line.

	module Foo (Foo, mkFoo, unFoo) where
	instance Show Property where

When a function's type signature needs to be wrapped to another line,
it's typical to switch to displaying one parameter per line.

	foo :: Bar -> Baz -> (Bar -> Baz) -> IO Baz

	foo'
		:: Bar
		-> Baz
		-> (Bar -> Baz)
		-> IO Baz
 
Note that the "::" then starts its own line. It is not put on the same
line as the function name because then it would not be guaranteed to line
up with the "->" at all tab width settings. Similarly, guards are put
on their own lines:

	splat i
		| odd i = error "splat!"
		| otherwise = i

Multiline lists and record syntax are written with leading commas,
that line up with the open and close punctuation.

	list =
		[ item1
		, item2
		, item3
		]

	foo = DataStructure
		{ name = "bar"
		, address = "baz"
		}

Similarly, data structures line up the leading `=` with the following `|`

	data Foo
		= Bar
		| Baz
		| Quux Foo
		deriving (Eq, Ord)

Module imports are separated into two blocks, one for third-party modules,
and one for modules that are part of propellor. (Additional blocks can be used
if it makes sense.)

Using tabs for indentation makes use of `let .. in` particularly tricky.
There's no really good way to bind multiple names in a let clause with
tab indentation. Instead, a where clause is typically used. To bind a single
name in a let clause, this is sometimes used:

	foo = let x = 42
		in x + (x-1) + x

-----

If you feel that this coding style leads to excessive amounts of horizontal
or vertical whitespace around your code, making it hard to fit enough of it
on the screen, consider finding a better abstraction, so the code that
does fit on the screen is easily understandable. ;)