The GNU Coding Standards were written by Richard Stallman and other
GNU Project volunteers. Their purpose is to make the GNU system clean,
consistent, and easy to install. These GNU Coding Standards can also be read as a
guide to writing portable, robust and reliable programs. It focuses on
programs written in C, but many of the rules and principles are useful
even if you write in another programming language. The rules often
state reasons for writing in a certain way.