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https://github.com/rudxain/automate-rx-style

A non-official Llamalab Automate style guide
https://github.com/rudxain/automate-rx-style

android best-practices formatting lint naming-conventions

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A non-official Llamalab Automate style guide

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README 

        
# AM RX style

Inspired by the [Airbnb JS style guide](https://github.com/airbnb/javascript) and [Google style guides](https://google.github.io/styleguide), I introduce you to the 1st-ever-made set of style, formatting, and best-practices for [LL](https://llamalab.com)-[AM](https://llamalab.com/automate)



## Repo Name



To explicitly communicate that this is not official, and not affiliated with Llamalab, and just 1 of infinitely many possible styles, I added "RX" which stands for "RudXain"



I couldn't think of a better name, please send me suggestions.



Despite the "RX", this is not intended to be "my personal style". I may take the freedom to ignore some of these rules in my own AM-flows  



This is intended to be for everyone, by everyone, from everyone. Therefore, contributions are very welcome!



I'm considering renaming it to **"Cyanne"**. This name is inspired by Python Black, CyanogenMod, AM's signature shade of blue, and the "secondary accent color" of my logo.

Unintentionally, it sounds similar to "Chayanne". I encourage you to make memes and jokes about this, lol.



## Naming



Variables:

- [snake_case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_case)

- Constants must be ALL UPPERCASE. Since all vars are mutable, we must take the same approach as in Shell langs

- private/local vars must be suffixed with `_`. AM syntax doesn't allow `_` as prefix

- The more vars declared, the more descriptive their names should be. There are no doc-comments, and AM has name-completion, so don't be afraid of long names, except if they take too much space in the flowchart preview 

- ["Process text selection"](https://llamalab.com/automate/doc/block/process_text.html) blocks shouldn't have redundant info. Never use the exact name as the "Flow Beginning", add some useful variations. Example: If the flow is named "Uppercase and Lowercase converter", the block-title should be "to lowercase" and "TO UPPERCASE" if each fiber converts to 1 capitalization (and there's no "Choice" blocks)



## Expressions



- Use [Yoda Style](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoda_conditions) when appropriate. AM has no assignment-expressions, but there are expression-previews.

A good example is when checking types: Imagine you have multiple blocks, all saying `type(var) = ...` in their previews, it's so frustrating when the preview doesn't show **which** types are being checked!

But we may argue the same about vars: imagine you had multiple vars, all being checked against the same type, and all you can see is `"number" = type(...` everywhere. It's so frustrating not knowing what vars are being checked!

- Use parentheses when appropriate. The docs aren't clear about operator precedence and associativity, so please reduce ambiguity in the meantime

- **Always** use parentheses in nested ternaries

- Use `++` for string concatenation. Only use interpolation if there's an expression between text literals.

This makes it look cleaner and allows name-completion. Interpolations can't always have name-completions



## Comments



Since AM doesn't support comments _per-se_, we have to emulate them.



- Expressions:

The best way is to use a ternary operator, [like in this flow](https://llamalab.com/automate/community/flows/40004). You can place comments on either side, unlike `&&` and `||` ops



- Blocks:

You can add unconnected "Log Append"s, but that increases the block count, forcing some non-premium users to delete those blocks.

Another option is to include block-docs in the flow description, but that may not have enough space.

If you need **much more space**, you should host the docs elsewhere (this speeds-up flow downloads for the users), and add a link in the desc



## Formatting



- Place blocks near each other, such that their connection paths are as short as possible. If there are too many blocks, add some space, such that the blocks are "grouped" with related blocks, but also "isolated" from unrelated groups

- If multiple paths of similar colors are overlapping, try to find a way to separate them. This is useful to disambiguate connections, especially for colorblind people



## Subroutines



- Use these blocks to mark the entry-points of "backend logic" (non UI stuff). This is known as [modular programming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_programming). However, if the entry-point is extremely obvious (e.g. when it's just 1 var-set), you can save blocks (and get better performance) by not adding it.

- If a subroutine makes assumptions about 1 or more variables, you must document those assumptions. You wouldn't want users of your subroutine accidentally assigning a non-null value to a variable that's expected to be `null`, that could be catastrophic if the variable contains private data and the subroutine posts it publicly to a random server



## Appendix



Just RTD (Read The Docs). If you learn more about AM, and practice coding in it, you'll learn best practices _automagically!_



## Linters



Currently, the [AST](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_tree) implementation used in \*.flo files is subject to change, without warning. This means that making linters/formatters that are forwards-compatible is almost impossible ([Source](https://groups.google.com/g/automate-user/c/_8xuZW7j5Ps/m/g-XtwOIAAgAJ))



If AM had a public API similar to [LSP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_Server_Protocol), then it would be possible to parse and analyse \*.flo files