Starry Pointers

OpenBSD 7.0 Release Song: The Style Hymn

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Lyrics

OpenBSD 7.0 - The Style Hymn

There we see developers, busy as bees.
They plan and polish one KNF after another.
Each carefully tending to their trees.
Leaving directories better than they found them.

The group shares common norms for style and aesthetics.
Indentation is a brisk 8 character tab.
Four spaces are used for the second level.
All code fits in 80 columns.
Only tabs followed by spaces are used to form the indentation.
Looking at the source sideways, this makes for a magnificent skyline.

Punctilious and meticulous attention to detail.
Major structures are declared at the top of the file in which they are used.
Each variable declaration its own line.
Except in functions, where multiple ones per line are okay.
A cheerful tab after the first word.
Variables are sorted by use, then by size, then by alphabetical order.
Each and every trailing whitespace buffed away.

Important comments can be recognized by their sheer size: a single sentence
is allowed to occupy three whole lines by spreading its starry lines!
All major routines have a comment briefly describing what they do.
The comment before the "main" routine describes what the program does.
Usage statements take the same form as the synopsis in manual pages.
Of course, manual pages are this masterpiece's crown jewels.

Lyrics by Job Snijders. Composed by Lourens van der Zwaag & Anouk Tuijnman. Produced by Lourens van der Zwaag. Vocals by Tos van Eekeren & Anouk Tuijnman.