Competent Coding

13 Feb 2020

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Coding Like a Civilized Person

In the spirit of complete honesty, nobody in their right might would prefer to work with a sloppy coder. When working in a team consistent coding standards between team members is a big plus since it makes it easy for everyone to understand each other’s codes. Coding standards are also great for team morale since it decreases the chance of a member feeling frustrated over another person’s sloppy code. I have experienced working with someone who did not follow coding standards and found that it was a complete waste of time.

Working With Others

Let’s imagine we are working in a team writing code for a mars rover and there are millions of lines of code we need to write and each subsystem is spread among multiple team members. If everyone used their own coding formats, whenever a team member must use another’s code, they would initially have to spend some time deciphering your code since they are not familiar with the formats that you use. This wasted a lot of time, and let’s face it no one wants to spend hours deciphering thousands of lines of code.

Coding is Communication

I find that coding is similar to a spoken language, when we write we have a certain order of arranging words so that the communication is clear between all parties communicating. I think not using correct coding standards is like communicating without correct grammar. I have worked with coders who don’t follow a convention and deciphering their code is a nightmare and takes up valuable time and hindering progress. If your goal is to stay friends with all your colleagues and be seen as a competent coder, following coding standards is the way to go.