HACKING

general:

 * all classes and methods should be covered by the docs and testsuite!

 * KISS [Wikipedia, KISS principle]

coding conventions:

 * one class per one header file [CERN, C05]

 * each header file should be self-contained [CERN, C01]

 * avoid unnecessary inclusions [CERN, C02]

 * protect header files from multiple inclusion [CERN, C03]
   using #pragma once

 * avoid multiple inheritance [CERN CB5]

 * filenames should be all-lowercase

 * double space indentation - no tabs (Google 'Spaces vs. Tabs')

 * avoid overly long files (let's say 200 lines excluding comments) and 
   avoid overly long lines (let's say 100 chars)

 * avoid use of preprocessor, if really needed always suffix
   macro names with _macro

 * both opening and closing braces on separate lines

 * only Unix-style carriage returns ("\n")

 * "two or more, use a for" (E.W. Dijkstra)

 * declare local variables as near to their use as possible

 * use references instead of pointers if possible

 * mark function arguments as const where possible


References:
[Wikipedia] - KISS principle
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle
[CERN] - CERN C++ Coding Standard Specification
  http://pst.web.cern.ch/PST/HandBookWorkBook/Handbook/Programming/CodingStandard/c++standard.pdf
[Google] - Google C++ Style Guide
  http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/cppguide.xml
[GNU] - GNU Coding Standards
  http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/
[GCC] - GCC C++ Coding Conventions
  http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/CppConventions