ISBN : 978-81-963532-2-3 (E-Book) exact format in which the header information is organized in the header can also be specified. The following are some standard header data: • Name of the module. • Date on which the module was created. • Author’s name. • Modification history. • Synopsis of the module. • Different functions supported, along with their input/output parameters. • Global variables accessed/modified by the module. 3. Naming conventions for global variables, local variables, and constant identifiers: A possible naming convention can be that global variable names always start with a capital letter, local variable names are made of small letters, and constant names are always capital letters. 4. Error return conventions and exception handling mechanisms: The way error conditions are reported by different functions in a program are handled should be standard within an organization. For example, different functions while encountering an error condition should either return a 0 or 1 consistently. The following are some representative coding guidelines recommended by many software development organizations. 1. Do not use a coding style that is too clever or too difficult to understand: Code should be easy to understand. Many inexperienced engineers actually take pride in writing cryptic and incomprehensible code. Clever coding can obscure meaning of the code and hamper understanding. It also makes maintenance difficult. 2. Avoid obscure side effects: The side effects of a function call include modification of parameters passed by reference, modification of global variables, and I/O operations. An obscure side effect is one that is not obvious from a casual examination of the code. Obscure side effects make it difficult to understand a piece of code. For example, if a global variable is changed obscurely in a called module or some file I/O is performed 82 Software Engineering Keerthana P, Manasa KN, Ganga D Bengal
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