Overview

This is the style guide for Autonomy for all Dart code, based off:

• Effective Dart https://dart.dev/effective-dart

If you are uncertain, refer to Effective Dart documentation or asks the Autonomy leads for help.

Dart Linter

• TODO: research the Dart Linter https://pub.dev/packages/lints

Files

Name packages, directories, and source files using snake_case:

my_package
└─ lib
   └─ file_system.dart
   └─ slider_menu.dart

File contents end with 1 blank line:

Amazing dart code...
// Last blank line below, then end of file

Indentation

• Idents are 2 spaces long https://www.reddit.com/r/dartlang/comments/ilhr3i/why_two_spaces_instead_of_four/. If you are using Visual Studio Code this will be the default with the Dart extension installed

• Blank lines do not have spaces

• Strings are encoded with UTF-8 and enclosed with single quotes to maintain consistency with the Flutter style guide https://github.com/flutter/flutter/wiki/Style-guide-for-Flutter-repo#prefer-single-quotes-for-strings

Imports

• One space between each import level

• Sort each import section alphabetically

Import order:

1. System-level imports: Anything that starts with import 'dart:__'

2. Installed packages: Anything that starts with import 'package:__'

3. Local packages: Anything written by/for WARG (including submodules)

Name import prefixes using snake_case:

import 'dart:math' as math;

import 'package:angular_components/angular_components.dart' as angular_components;
import 'package:js/js.dart' as js;

import 'util.dart';

Identifier naming

• variableNames in lowerCamelCase

• constantNames in lowerCamelCase

• functionNames in lowerCamelCase

• Classes, enumerated types, typedefs and type parameters should be in UpperCamelCase

class SliderMenu {...}
class HttpRequest { ... }
typedef Predicate<T> = bool Function(T value);

Variables

• use final for local variables that are not re-assigned

final int constantNumber = 6;
int changingNumber = 9;

Classes

• Private members (methods and attributes) are prefixed with 1 underscore

int _my_private_member;
void _my_private_function();

• Initialize fields at their declaration when possible

class ProfileMark {
  final String name;
  final DateTime start = DateTime.now();

  ProfileMark(this.name);
  ProfileMark.unnamed() : name = '';
}

Logic

• Use curly braces for all flow control statements

  • Exception: if statement with no else clause and whole if statement fits on one line, can omit braces

• Put subsequent if and else on the same line as previous block’s closing brace

if (statement) {
  // Something
} else if (statement) {
  // Something
} else {
  // Something
}

• Avoid using true or false in equality operations

if (nonNullableBool) { // True... }
if (!nonNullableBool) { // False... }

Functions

• Use = to separate parameters from its default value

Operators

• No spaces around : if it's used as a slicing operator, otherwise space after:

• One space on either side of all binary operators, including assignment operators

  • Ex: + - * / % , += -= *= /=, > < == !=

• One space after every comma

Strings

• Use adjacent strings to concatenate string literals

• Use interpolation to combine string and values

  • Avoid curly braces when not necessary

Misc

• Lines are 100 characters long

• No spaces at the end of a line

Multiline

Commenting

Format comments like sentences

Doc comments TODO: investigate dart doc

• use /// to document members and types

• Dart doc can find & generate comments for it

• Start doc comments with single-sentence summary

• Separate first sentence from rest of description

General Example

No commented out and unreachable code

Do not add code that you have commented out. It is better to just delete it. Git and GitHub will keep a record if it’s ever needed again.

Additionally, delete unreachable code (code that will never be run). For example: