# RFC: Consolidate Coding Standards Policy Document - Status: Accepted - Authors: Derick Rethans derick@php.net - Date: 2014-12-16 - Version: 0.9 - Original: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/consolidate-coding-standard-policy-document - Page: https://externals.io/rfc/consolidate-coding-standard-policy-document - More for agents: search with https://externals.io/search.md?q={query} · RFCs at https://externals.io/rfc.md · JSON API at https://externals.io/api · documentation at https://externals.io/llms.txt ## Votes ### Rewrite Coding Standards and Naming Document with Suggested Patch? (closed) yes: 13 · no: 0 Voters: ashnazg (yes), bukka (yes), cpriest (yes), derick (yes), galvao (yes), girgias (yes), ilutov (yes), kalle (yes), kguest (yes), mbeccati (yes), ramsey (yes), sergey (yes), theodorejb (yes) ## Discussions on the mailing list - [\[RFC\] Consolidate Coding Standards Policy Document](https://externals.io/message/126133.md) — started on 2024-12-18, 5 messages - [\[VOTE\] \[RFC\] Consolidate Coding Standards Policy Document](https://externals.io/message/126209.md) — started on 2025-01-14, 2 messages --- ## Introduction This RFC is the follow-up on the [Policy Repository RFC](https://externals.io/rfc/policy-repository). That RFC created the Policies Repository, but made no changes to existing documents. An item under “Future Scope” indicated that in the future these documents would be rewritten into an actual document, instead of a collection of RFCs. ## Proposal This proposal suggests adopting the changes to the [Coding Standards and Naming](https://github.com/php/policies/blob/main/coding-standards-and-naming.rst) document, and to integrate the [CODING\_STANDARDS.md](https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/master/CODING_STANDARDS.md) file from the php-src repository. The patch is available at for review. It has been converted to use BCP 14/RFC 2119 terminology (SHOULD, MUST, etc), mimicking as close as possible the original intended meaning of the text from “Coding Standards and Naming”. Specifically, the original document used “should” a lot, where it really meant MUST. Preliminary review by a select few has tweaked the terms to be as close as possible. '' The integration of the'' CODING\_STANDARDS.md file followed, and only includes minor changes to the text, again, specifically to use the BCP 14/RFC 2119 terminology. In addition, a separate commit modifies some `CODING_STANDARD.md` language to document certain current behaviour, which the original document was never updated for, in a specific commit: As part of the RFC process, wording in the associated Pull Request can be updated, up until the vote opens. Deviations to currently documented guidelines will remain in a separate commit before merging. ## Proposed Voting Choices 2/3rds majority required. The vote runs until January 28th, 16:00 UTC. **Vote: Rewrite Coding Standards and Naming Document with Suggested Patch?** — yes: 13 · no: 0 (closed) ## Patches and Tests \- The patch is at , and includes previous changes to the text as found by early contributors. ## References \- The original Policy Repository RFC: