Merge branch 'jc/post-c89-rules-doc'

We have been trying out a few language features outside c89; the
coding guidelines document did not talk about them and instead had
a blanket ban against them.

* jc/post-c89-rules-doc:
  CodingGuidelines: spell out post-C89 rules

1 files changed, 23 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/CodingGuidelines b/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
index 1169ff6c8e..f45db5b727 100644
--- a/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
+++ b/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
@@ -195,10 +195,30 @@ For C programs:
    by e.g. "echo DEVELOPER=1 >>config.mak".
 
  - We try to support a wide range of C compilers to compile Git with,
-   including old ones. That means that you should not use C99
-   initializers, even if a lot of compilers grok it.
+   including old ones.  You should not use features from newer C
+   standard, even if your compiler groks them.
 
- - Variables have to be declared at the beginning of the block.
+   There are a few exceptions to this guideline:
+
+   . since early 2012 with e1327023ea, we have been using an enum
+     definition whose last element is followed by a comma.  This, like
+     an array initializer that ends with a trailing comma, can be used
+     to reduce the patch noise when adding a new identifer at the end.
+
+   . since mid 2017 with cbc0f81d, we have been using designated
+     initializers for struct (e.g. "struct t v = { .val = 'a' };").
+
+   . since mid 2017 with 512f41cf, we have been using designated
+     initializers for array (e.g. "int array[10] = { [5] = 2 }").
+
+   These used to be forbidden, but we have not heard any breakage
+   report, and they are assumed to be safe.
+
+ - Variables have to be declared at the beginning of the block, before
+   the first statement (i.e. -Wdeclaration-after-statement).
+
+ - Declaring a variable in the for loop "for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)"
+   is still not allowed in this codebase.
 
  - NULL pointers shall be written as NULL, not as 0.