solana/CONTRIBUTING.md

Solana Coding Guidelines
===

The goal of these guidelines is to improve developer productivity by allowing developers to
jump any file in the codebase and not need to adapt to inconsistencies in how the code is
written. The codebase should appear as if it had been authored by a single developer. If you
don't agree with a convention, submit a PR patching this document and let's discuss! Once
the PR is accepted, *all* code should be updated as soon as possible to reflect the new
conventions.

Rust coding conventions
---

* All Rust code is formatted using the latest version of `rustfmt`. Once installed, it will be
  updated automatically when you update the compiler with `rustup`.

* All Rust code is linted with Clippy. If you'd prefer to ignore its advice, do so explicitly:

  ```rust
  #[allow(clippy::too_many_arguments)]
  ```

  Note: Clippy defaults can be overridden in the top-level file `.clippy.toml`.

* For variable names, when in doubt, spell it out. The mapping from type names to variable names
  is to lowercase the type name, putting an underscore before each capital letter. Variable names
  should *not* be abbreviated unless being used as closure arguments and the brevity improves
  readability. When a function has multiple instances of the same type, qualify each with a
  prefix and underscore (i.e. alice_keypair) or a numeric suffix (i.e. tx0).

* For function and method names, use `<verb>_<subject>`. For unit tests, that verb should
  always be `test` and for benchmarks the verb should always be `bench`. Avoid namespacing
  function names with some arbitrary word. Avoid abbreviating words in function names.

* As they say, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." A good patch should acknowledge the coding
  conventions of the code that surrounds it, even in the case where that code has not yet been
  updated to meet the conventions described here.


Terminology
---

Inventing new terms is allowed, but should only be done when the term is widely used and
understood. Avoid introducing new 3-letter terms, which can be confused with 3-letter acronyms.

[Terms currently in use](book/src/terminology.md)


Proposing architectural changes
---

Solana's architecture is described by a book generated from markdown files in
the `book/src/` directory, maintained by an *editor* (currently @garious). To
change the architecture, you'll need to at least propose a change the content
under the [Proposed
Changes](https://solana-labs.github.io/book-edge/proposals.html) chapter. Here's
the full process:

1. Propose to a change to the architecture by creating a PR that adds a
   markdown document to the directory `book/src/` and references it from the
   [table of contents](book/src/SUMMARY.md). Add the editor and any relevant
   *maintainers* to the PR review.
2. The PR being merged indicates your proposed change was accepted and that the
   editor and maintainers support your plan of attack.
3. Submit PRs that implement the proposal. When the implementation reveals the
   need for tweaks to the architecture, be sure to update the proposal and have
   that change reviewed by the same people as in step 1.
4. Once the implementation is complete, the editor will then work to integrate
   the document into the book.