OUI Standards & Development Guides

Overview

Welcome to the OUI Standards & Development Guides repository. This comprehensive resource is designed to provide clear, consistent, and professional development standards for all OUI projects. Whether you're a public contributor or an OUI employee, this repository serves as your definitive guide for building high-quality, maintainable software within the OUI ecosystem.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to establish and maintain unified development standards that ensure:

• Consistency across all OUI projects
• Quality through proven best practices
• Collaboration by providing clear guidelines for contributors
• Maintainability through structured development approaches

Important Guidelines

Hierarchy Rules

When working with existing codebases, please follow this priority order:

1. Legacy Codebase Rules: If you're working on an existing legacy codebase, follow the established patterns and conventions of that specific project
2. Migration Exception: The above rule does not apply when you are actively porting a legacy project to comply with the new OUI standards
3. New Projects: All new projects must strictly adhere to the guidelines outlined in this repository

Note: This repository is actively evolving. New standards, guides, and best practices are continuously being added to expand our development framework.

Documentation Structure

C Programming Standards

The following guides provide comprehensive standards for C development within the OUI ecosystem:

Document	Description	Status
Naming Guide	Comprehensive naming conventions for variables, functions, types, and modules	✅ Active
Modern Error Handling Strategy	Current recommended approach for error handling using union-based strategies	✅ Recommended
Legacy Error Handling Strategy	Previous error handling approach - maintained for legacy project compatibility	⚠️ Deprecated
Object-Oriented Programming Emulation	Techniques and patterns for implementing OOP concepts in C	✅ Active

Getting Started

For New Contributors

1. Read the Overview: Start by understanding our mission and guidelines
2. Review Relevant Standards: Focus on the documentation relevant to your programming language
3. Check Legacy Rules: If working on existing projects, verify which standards apply
4. Ask Questions: Don't hesitate to reach out to the maintainers for clarification

For Project Maintainers

1. Enforce Standards: Ensure all new code follows the appropriate guidelines
2. Migration Planning: Consider migrating legacy projects to new standards when feasible
3. Documentation Updates: Keep project-specific documentation aligned with these standards

Contributing to This Repository

We welcome contributions to improve and expand these standards. Please:

1. Follow Existing Patterns: Maintain consistency with current documentation structure
2. Provide Examples: Include practical examples wherever possible
3. Test Guidelines: Ensure recommendations have been tested in real projects
4. Update Table of Contents: Keep all navigation elements current

Roadmap

This repository is under active development. Planned additions include:

• Additional Programming Languages: Lua and JavaScript
• Architecture Guidelines: Microservices, API design,Cli design, Library Design, and system architecture patterns
• Code Review Standards: Standardized review processes and checklists
• Testing Strategies: Unit testing, integration testing, and test automation guidelines
• Documentation Standards: Technical writing and API documentation guidelines
• Security Guidelines: Secure coding practices and vulnerability prevention
• Performance Guidelines: Optimization strategies and performance benchmarking

Support & Contact

For questions, suggestions, or support regarding these standards:

• Issues: Open an issue in this repository for documentation bugs or improvement suggestions
• Discussions: Use GitHub Discussions for general questions and community input
• Direct Contact: Reach out to the OUI development team for urgent clarifications

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. You are free to use, modify, distribute, and build upon this work for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, provided that the original copyright notice and license terms are included.

For detailed information, please refer to the LICENSE file.

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Last Updated: September 2025
Maintained by: OUI Development Team