contrib : add naming guidelines

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 # Pull requests (for contributors)
 
 - Test your changes:
-  - Execute [the full CI locally on your machine](ci/README.md) before publishing
-  - Verify that the perplexity and the performance are not affected negatively by your changes (use `llama-perplexity` and `llama-bench`)
-  - If you modified the `ggml` source, run the `test-backend-ops` tool to check whether different backend implementations of the `ggml` operators produce consistent results (this requires access to at least two different `ggml` backends)
-  - If you modified a `ggml` operator or added a new one, add the corresponding test cases to `test-backend-ops`
+    - Execute [the full CI locally on your machine](ci/README.md) before publishing
+    - Verify that the perplexity and the performance are not affected negatively by your changes (use `llama-perplexity` and `llama-bench`)
+    - If you modified the `ggml` source, run the `test-backend-ops` tool to check whether different backend implementations of the `ggml` operators produce consistent results (this requires access to at least two different `ggml` backends)
+    - If you modified a `ggml` operator or added a new one, add the corresponding test cases to `test-backend-ops`
 - Consider allowing write access to your branch for faster reviews, as reviewers can push commits directly
 - If your PR becomes stale, don't hesitate to ping the maintainers in the comments
 
@@ -20,14 +20,104 @@
 - Avoid adding third-party dependencies, extra files, extra headers, etc.
 - Always consider cross-compatibility with other operating systems and architectures
 - Avoid fancy-looking modern STL constructs, use basic `for` loops, avoid templates, keep it simple
-- There are no strict rules for the code style, but try to follow the patterns in the code (indentation, spaces, etc.). Vertical alignment makes things more readable and easier to batch edit
+- Vertical alignment makes things more readable and easier to batch edit
 - Clean-up any trailing whitespaces, use 4 spaces for indentation, brackets on the same line, `void * ptr`, `int & a`
-- Naming usually optimizes for common prefix (see https://github.com/ggerganov/ggml/pull/302#discussion_r1243240963)
+- Use sized integer types in the public API
+- Declare structs with `struct foo {}` instead of `typedef struct foo {} foo`
+    - In C++ code omit optional `struct` and `enum` keyword whenever they are not necessary
+    ```cpp
+    // OK
+    llama_context * ctx;
+    const llama_rope_type rope_type;
+
+    // not OK
+    struct llama_context * ctx;
+    const enum llama_rope_type rope_type;
+    ```
+
+    _(NOTE: this guideline is yet to be applied to the `llama.cpp` codebase. New code should follow this guideline.)_
+
+- Try to follow the existing patterns in the code (indentation, spaces, etc.). In case of doubt use `clang-format` to format the added code
+- For anything not covered in the current guidelines, refer to the [C++ Core Guidelines](https://isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines)
 - Tensors store data in row-major order. We refer to dimension 0 as columns, 1 as rows, 2 as matrices
 - Matrix multiplication is unconventional: [`C = ggml_mul_mat(ctx, A, B)`](https://github.com/ggerganov/llama.cpp/blob/880e352277fc017df4d5794f0c21c44e1eae2b84/ggml.h#L1058-L1064) means $C^T = A B^T \Leftrightarrow C = B A^T.$
 
 ![matmul](media/matmul.png)
 
+# Naming guidelines
+
+- Use `snake_case` for function, variable and type names
+- Naming usually optimizes for longest common prefix (see https://github.com/ggerganov/ggml/pull/302#discussion_r1243240963)
+
+    ```cpp
+    // not OK
+    int small_number;
+    int big_number;
+
+    // OK
+    int number_small;
+    int number_big;
+    ```
+
+- Enum values are always in upper case and prefixed with the enum name
+
+    ```cpp
+    enum llama_vocab_type {
+        LLAMA_VOCAB_TYPE_NONE = 0,
+        LLAMA_VOCAB_TYPE_SPM  = 1,
+        LLAMA_VOCAB_TYPE_BPE  = 2,
+        LLAMA_VOCAB_TYPE_WPM  = 3,
+        LLAMA_VOCAB_TYPE_UGM  = 4,
+        LLAMA_VOCAB_TYPE_RWKV = 5,
+    };
+    ```
+
+- The general naming pattern is `<class>_<method>`, with `<method>` being `<action>_<noun>`
+
+    ```cpp
+    llama_model_init();           // class: "llama_model",         method: "init"
+    llama_sampler_chain_remove(); // class: "llama_sampler_chain", method: "remove"
+    llama_sampler_get_seed();     // class: "llama_sampler",       method: "get_seed"
+    llama_set_embeddings();       // class: "llama_context",       method: "set_embeddings"
+    llama_n_threads();            // class: "llama_context",       method: "n_threads"
+    llama_adapter_lora_free();    // class: "llama_adapter_lora",  method: "free"
+    ```
+
+    - The `get` `<action>` can be omitted
+    - The `<noun>` can be omitted if not necessary
+    - The `_context` suffix of the `<class>` is optional. Use it to disambiguate symbols when needed
+    - Use `init`/`free` for constructor/destructor `<action>`
+
+- Use the `_t` suffix when a type is supposed to be opaque to the user - it's not relevant to them if it is a struct or anything else
+
+    ```cpp
+    typedef struct llama_context * llama_context_t;
+
+    enum llama_pooling_type llama_pooling_type(const llama_context_t ctx);
+    ```
+
+    _(NOTE: this guideline is yet to be applied to the `llama.cpp` codebase. New code should follow this guideline)_
+
+- C/C++ filenames are all lowercase with dashes. Headers use the `.h` extension. Source files use the `.c` or `.cpp` extension
+- Python filenames are all lowercase with underscores
+
+- _(TODO: abbreviations usage)_
+
+# Preprocessor directives
+
+- (TODO: add guidelines with examples and apply them to the codebase)
+
+    ```cpp
+    #ifdef FOO
+    #endif // FOO
+    ```
+
+# Documentation
+
+- Documentation is a community effort
+- When you need to look into the source code to figure out implementation details to figure out how to use an API consider adding a short summary to the header file for future reference
+- When you notice incorrect or outdated documentation, please update it
+
 # Resources
 
 The Github issues, PRs and discussions contain a lot of information that can be useful to get familiar with the codebase. For convenience, some of the more important information is referenced from Github projects: