C++STYLE

[Benjamin Kosnik <bkoz at cygnus dot com>]

Perhaps this is the time to formalize the C++ style bits. Jason is
right, some of this stuff is bogus. Many things are selectively
applied, or interpreted randomly.

If having a set of C++ style guides would help g++ produce
human-readable error messages, then I'm all for trying to come up with
something everybody can live with. As a side benefit, it would be nice
to unify some of the random formatting that is going on now (It looks
like io/string match, but valarray/complex are different and the STL
is all over the place.) 

Here's my suggestion: 

End goals might include:
   - emacs mode that enforces the rule (Say, mode of 'GNU C++')
   - code is re-formatted to C++STYLE guide
   - C++STYLE document that is put in GNU coding standards document.

Meta-issues that have to be resolved:
   - What subset of the C coding style will be used. 
   - What degree of consistency with the C style will be tolerated, and
     if this is desired.
   - Consistency with respect to the typographic conventions in 14882.

As you can see, my main interest is trying to come up with a C++
coding standard that is internally consistent, and hopefully
consistent with C/14882 (and if not, areas of difference are noted and
explained.)
 
In addition, some kind of consistent mechanism needs to be established
to resolve protracted (and pointless) disputes. (Say, ayes/nayes from
mailing lists via email, vote of maintainers, or something. Anything!)
It would be nice if the debate over where to put '*' and '&' could be
resolved within a week, for instance. 

Any ideas? Is this something people feel is important, and if so,
should this be hammered out now? 

-Benjamin