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+# Formatting Guidelines
+
+This document lays out how to format code and documents as well as
+a few coding practices.
+
+
+## Markdown
+
+Don't go beyond 80 characters per line, preferably slightly less.
+This improves readability on a terminal.
+
+Leave two empty lines between sections for the same reason.
+
+Indent by two spaces.
+
+
+## C++ / C++ headers
+
+Include the copyright notice as present in the template at the top of
+each file.
+
+Don't use excessive comments, use descriptive names instead.
+There is no such thing as too long names (within reason, of course).
+
+Don't have comments that go beyond 80 characters per line, preferably
+slightly less.
+
+Put comments on their own lines.
+
+Indent by four spaces.
+
+Put opening curly braces used for scoping (namespaces, functions, conditions,
+loops, etc.) on the same line as the code declaring the scope and the
+corresponding closing curly braces on their own line indented the same
+as the code declaring the scope.
+(Java-style... How do I reword this properly?)
+
+Put a line break after `template <typename T>`.
+
+Use camel case names where possible except for constants which should use
+all uppercase letters and underscores for their names.
+Variables and functions start with a lowercase letter, classes and structs
+with an uppercase letter.
+
+Avoid abbreviations unless they are well known and universally used acronyms.
+
+Use explicitly sized data types where possible.
+For example, use `int32_t` instead of `int`.
+
+When coming up with names, refer to data types by category and size.
+For example, refer to double precision floating point numbers as `float64`
+instead of `double`.
+
+
+## Shell Script
+
+Use the hash bang `#!/usr/bin/env bash`.
+
+Include the copyright notice as present in the template below the hash bang.
+
+Indent by four spaces.
+
+Put special commands like `then` and `do` on the same line as the control
+structure they belong to. Use the same indent for special commands like
+`fi` and `done` as for the control structure they belong to.
+
+Use uppercase variable names with underscores except for loops where
+lowercase variable names with underscores may be used for counters and
+iterators.
+