About Formal Coding
24 Sep 2020
What is a standard? A level of quality attainment. When we are writing an essay, the instructor will require us to follow the instruction. When we are doing the math homework, we will need to use the proper formula and correct format in the function. These are the standards. Why do we need a standard? Standards provide people and organizations with a basis for mutual understanding, and are used as tools to facilitate communication, measurement, commerce and manufacturing. Same thing with coding, we should also follow the coding standard while we are coding.
Some people think that the coding standard is not important for them, because they know what they are doing. Even though they don’t follow the coding standard, they still can run the program perfectly as long as they get all the code right. To be honest, coding standards are not a rigid requirement when we are coding. However, sometimes we still lose some points because of the standards. After a couple weeks of using ESLint with IntelliJ, I realized that most of my codes are up to standard. No annoying error tag on the bottom, I can save more time to check the code logic. With my experiences, let me tell you about why we need coding standards.
A coding standard gives a uniform appearance to the codes written by different engineers
Engineers are all over the world. They are from different countries, different languages and even the custom. Everyone may have their own custom to write codes in different formats. Some of the codes are open-source for multi-purpose, what if all those codes are in different formats? It will only affect your reading and understanding. A coding standard will unify all those code in one specific format.
It improves readability, and maintainability of the code and it reduces complexity also
As I said, different formats will affect the reading and understanding. The coding standard helps solve this problem. In addition, a project in the same standard will be easier to edit by different people, especially when you work with group mates.
It helps in code reuse and helps to detect error easily
The system usually tells me where you have errors or problems in your code. The proper coding with a coding standard will help you to find problems easier. In that way, you will save more time to view the code.
It promotes sound programming practices and increases efficiency of the programmers
Maybe you can write faster in your own way, but I believe the coding standard will help you better on coding.
I strongly recommend taking a few minutes to check your code with the coding standard after finishing your work. This will be useful when you work with your co-workers if you are going to do related career in the future. It is never ve a bad thing to do things up to standard.