CONTRIBUTION.md

DigiDAW Contribution Guidelines

Project Structure

The project is split up into two main sections. Core, and UI.

Core is responsible for the actual audio processing engine and other internals, including the Mixer, VST Engine, Project File Format, Internal Track State, and more.

UI is responsible for everything the user interacts with, program settings, and anything the GPU renders.

SIMD

All SIMD code is within the Core project, is under DigiDAWCore/priv_include/detail/simdhelper.h, and is only used internally within the Core project.

It's important to keep all SIMD under this file, as later this file will probably be converted to use dynamic dispatching, for automatically using available SIMD extensions.

Styling

This project uses C++20, and thus, any C++20 features can be utilized. (I'd avoid overly abstracting everything, and excessively complicated templates unless absolutely necessary and very well documented, however. That just makes the code less readable and maintainable)

Source File Names

Filenames use snake_case, for example:

this_is_an_important_source_file.cpp
this_is_an_important_header_file.h

Header files use .h and not .hpp.

Function and Variable Names

Function names use PascalCase, while variable names use camelCase. For example:

static unsigned int interestingVariable = 1337;
void DoSomething(int variousArguments, float andWhatNot);

Certain abbreviations can be uppercase, but only in function names, for example:

unsigned int variableLufsThing = 3765;
int lufsVariable = 5430;
void CalculateRMS(float amplitude, float& rms);

try to prefer putting the abbreviation at the beginning of the variable name (in lowercase).

ImGUI

Since ImGUI uses the Immediate Mode style of API, it's prefered to use scoping between Begin/End and Push/Pop blocks of code. For example:

void RenderSomething()
{
    ImGui::PushStyleVar(ImGuiStyleVar_Something, ImVec2(0.0f, 1.0f));
    {
        if (ImGui::Begin("Test Window"))
        {
            ImGui::BeginVertical("##random_layout");
            {
                ImGui::Text("Hello");
            }
            ImGui::EndVertical();
        }
        ImGui::End();
    }
    ImGui::PopStyleVar();
}

Static Classes

Static classes (classes with only static members in them) should be used instead of namespaces, for example:

Use

// StaticHelpers.h
namespace My::Namespace::Path
{
    class StaticHelpers
    {
    public:
        static unsigned int someVariableOrWhatever;

        static void MyStaticFunction();
    };
}

// StaticHelpers.cpp
namespace My::Namespace::Path
{
    unsigned int StaticHelpers::someVariableOrWhatever = 5;

    void StaticHelpers::MyStaticFunction()
    {
        // Implementation Here
    }
}

Instead of

// StaticHelpers.h
namespace My::Namespace::Path::StaticHelpers
{
    extern unsigned int someVariableOrWhatever;

    void MyStaticFunction();
}

// StaticHelpers.cpp
namespace My::Namespace::Path
{
    unsigned int StaticHelpers::someVariableOrWhatever = 5;

    void StaticHelpers::MyStaticFunction()
    {
        // Implementation Here
    }
}

Namespaces

All namespaces should start with DigiDAW::Core if in the Core project, or DigiDAW::UI if in the UI project.

Include Paths

Include paths should start with digidaw/core if in the Core project, or digidaw/ui if in the UI project. Unless the include path is to a private include (only applies to the Core project) or is a third-party library that warrants a specific include path.

Comments

Comments can be multiline with either repeating //, or using /* */ (usually for explaining project architecture more than indvidual lines in functions).

Occasionally using /* */ mid-line, when the comment pertains to a specific section of code in a single line is appropriate.