====== WACT Coding Standards ======

The WACT project uses the [[http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.php|PEAR Coding standards]] with a few exceptions and additions.
===== PEAR Standard Exceptions =====
WACT makes the following exceptions to the PEAR coding standards.
==== Function Definitions ====
WACT uses the one true brace style for function definitions.
<code php>
function HelloWorld() {
    echo "Hello World!";
}
</code>

This overrides the [[http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.funcdef.php|Function Defintions]] section of the PEAR coding standard.

==== Header Comment Blocks ====
//Many Exceptions here.//

This overrides the [[http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.header.php|Header Comment Blocks]] section of the PEAR coding standard.

==== Naming Conventions ====

All classes and functions in WACT should be prefixed by 'Wact'.
<code php>
class WactExample {
}

function WactExample() {
}
</code>

WACT code should not use constants defined with [[phpfn>define]].  Class constants should be all upper case.

WACT code should not use global variables.  //Does it do that anyway now?  If it does, we need to talk prefixes.//

This overrides the [[http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.naming.php|Naming Conventions]] section of the PEAR coding standard.

===== Additional Standards =====
==== Including Code ====
All includes in WACT must be relative to the ''include_path''.

A file should require_once its dependencies at the top of the file.

=== Lazy Loading for exceptions ===
All exception classes should be lazy loaded.
<code php>
    require_once 'wact/sample/example.xcpt.php';
    throw new ExampleException();
</code>
See [[wact:file organization]] for more information on the ''.xcpt.php'' filename extension.