For this quarters blog, I decided to write about Coding Standards and chose to read Why You Need Coding Standards by David Mytton. To start off, Mytton talks about what does “proper” code really mean. It is not just any code that works, but rather code that is easy to fix, add to, and update in the future. His blog mentions a common problems that we face today. Many developers start learning code with their own style which only they might understand. Once a project grows and other people join in, different styles will collide and make the code confusing. Mytton explains the frustration of working with messy code and how stressful it is to scroll through long, unclear code with confusing variable names, missing comments, and code without spacing.
There are two main examples that were used to show the difference that coding standards make. Both examples were written in PHP, the first example was messy. There wasn’t spacing, variable names were unclear, no braces around control structures, and long conditions missing parentheses. Although it technically worked, it was definitely hard to read at first. The second example showed the same logic. This time around there was clean formatting, clear variable names, proper indentation, and braces correctly placed. I’ve never used PHP but it was obvious that the second example was much easier to understand.
I selected this blog because recently in class we’ve been working on clean coding and realized how hard it can be to understand code written in different ways. I also wanted to further my understanding of how professionals handle this problem and how they keep projects organized. I think that this blog was able to explain that point in a simple and relatable way for me.
From this blog I learned that coding standards are beyond just “good habits.” It prevents confusion, reduces mistakes, and allows projects to run more smoothly. I also learned that a coding standard is not something that just one person creates and uses for themselves but rather by the whole team. I hope that I am able to fix my poor coding habits and write code that allows others to collaborate with my work. I think before this, I didn’t care much whether somebody would be able to read my code but rather if it was able to run then I was satisfied. My mindset has changed and I want to be more consistent with following coding standards.
From the blog CS@Worcester – wdo by wdo and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.