“Programming is an art of telling another human what one wants the computer to do.” – Donald Knuth
Communication is an art which can make people fall in love or give you bad compliments it means if you speak well people will listen and interact with you and if you won’t, you are the odd one out. Your way of communication defines your goals, delivers your message, shows interaction and creates understanding with different people. It’s a primary facet of every department of the stage of life. We have to be clear and concise while talking about anything. In programming world it’s similar. We have to be clear and concise while writing the code so that computer works efficiently.
Everyone can write a code that computer can understand, but only a good programmer can write a code which a human can understand easily. Programmers can usually learn different languages and go for a number of technologies to admire their code, but actually, it won’t give you anything if your code is not easy to understand, concise and clear. In the programming world, if you write awful code you can’t describe it to another, and it happens when you write code in pressure. It is a fact; the poorly written code can make life miserable and painful for the programmer.
Clean code should be readily accessible to others also straightforward, clear intent, and with useful abstractions. It should be made for the real world and has a clear error handling strategy. The author apparently cares about the software and other developers which imply both readability and maintainability, and it is minimal with fewer dependencies. It should also be easy to change; it means easy to extend and refactor. Refactoring is a process of restructuring code without modifying external behavior.
Characteristics of clean code
Clean code is simple, direct and well-written prose then it should be providing one way rather than many ways of doing one thing. The qualities of code cite as being characteristics of well-written code. Attributes of clean code are:
- Efficiency
Clean code should be swift, and it will be easier to maintain. It tends to be faster as it indicates that the code was adequately developed and refactored to its core idea. - Maintainability
The genuinely maintainable code is to write it for other people to read. It should be a combination of short, simple, consistent and useful naming with clear logic. Always think with that which comes after you. - Well Structured
Well-structured is how the various objects in a software base work together with each other. It is essential for the organization as it determines how long it takes and expensive to develop to maintain a software - Regarded by your peers
It is a testimony for a suitable job in the profession if something regarded by your peers. As you know good programmers know the good code and functional programming is when peers say good about your code and prefer to copy paste from your programs. understand - Readable
Good readability means that when a new developer touches the code, it will take less time to comprehend what the code is doing. - Reliability
Code that is constant will not cause dumps which mean that it is more reliable in the application and take fewer downtimes to the business. - Follows Standards
The code should follow a set of guidelines, rules, and regulationsthat are set by the organization. It will assist programmers more easily to understand and maintain source code when it complies with standards. The consistency and uniformity of code deliver the best communication to the machine. - Extensibility
It means how easily code can get used to changing conditions and add to the new It is not like that code once written cannot change.
Advantages of clean code
- Your code is your responsibility
Coder has to make sure about their code that it can appear same to him even after six months. If you are not competent to classify your code, then you got confused and took a lot of time to fix it. Follow best practices for the best outcome.
- You work in a team
Developing a software is a team work and if your team member is unable to understand your logic by reading code than you are not doing it right and it wastes a lot of time in solving conflicts. Never give that code to your team member which hardly stays integral.
- Easily maintainable and extensible
It is tough to add a new module or change an existing one if you never follow a pattern while developing a project. It should be easy so that any developer can extend or make changes in it. Every coding needs maintenance and development after six months.
- Easy debugging
The developer has to log in correctly and use separate classes or method so that one can debug it and solve the exact issue step by step. If you have just written all coding in one file, without logs and there is no proper methodology follows than you will end up with the spinning head.
- Owner of product
Develop a project for a client in the way he can deploy it after completion quickly as he is paying for source code. If he wants to amend it later, then he can get ease in it.
Clean code principles
There are three essential principles to write clean code:
- Always choose the right tool for the coding in developing software.
- Optimize the signal-to-noise ratio every time so, that no coding can interfere.
- Endeavor to write self-documenting code so, that you can explain it quickly.
Qualities of clean code
- Clean code is focused
Single responsibility principle should be followed in every coding method which means if you need to change a class you can able to do it without disturbing any class and the change should not be coming up with more than one. It is not limit the concept of classes only. SRP is a practical unit on a given level of abstraction which is accountable for a single facet of a system. It is a trait of requirement which can change other aspects independently.
- Solution for the problematic code
The language of the program doesn’t make it simple, but programmer makes the language simple. The developer shouldn’t use workarounds which make code and language usually look discomfited. If you declare that means of a workaround can only do something, it means that you did not spend sufficient time to find a good, clean solution.
- Code should not be redundant
The code should comply with DRY (don’t repeat yourself) rule as any modification of any single element doesn’t require a change in other logical unrelated factors. Repetition of words in coding makes it complicated, and it won’t come in use for any other base system.
- Reading your code should be pleasant
The code should be readable so that any developer can read it without spending hours on digging into it. For this, many of developers use KIS (Keep it simple) and YAGNI (You aren’t going to need it) rules. Don’t make codes complex. In this program, simplicity should be a key goal. It also encourages focusing on the simplest things of the software work.
- Easily extended by another developer
Write code for others; don’t make it worse for the compiler as we write it for other developers. If it’s complicated, then it can be torture for others, and we have to take care as they are our team members. It should be maintainable and extendable.
- Minimal dependencies
If the code is dependent, then it is harder to maintain or modify in future. Simplification can help you in future to achieve goals. If the code is dependent, then there is potential incorrectness.
- Smaller is enhanced
The code should be minimal in both classes and methods. Preferably, the code will be in few lines and well divided in every class. The better you split your code, the easier it becomes to read it. It should also make it pleasant, readable and easier to understand for the developer.
- Unit and acceptance
Testing is the most crucial factor in coding. How can we do testing and run without fear that I will stop working? If its maintenance and extendable then we can trust on tests. Coding should stand on pillars which mean there should be the base which can support if something goes wrong.
- It should be expressive
Names of the code should be suggestive as they show the intention that what it works and it also not misleads another developer. It should be distinctive then it makes documentation less important. The code has to be self-documenting so that it takes less time for understanding.
- Complete Software Code Look
The functionality of code holds great importance for the developer. The use of right indentation, spacing and capitalization makes software and program easy to understand. Try to give a better look to the code as it should be simple apparently.
