Recently I read a post about the important qualities in a developer. One of the points that was made is that the developer needs to subscribe to the coding style of the project, even if they don't agree with it.
I thought, that's interesting, and it's not something that I'd want to do. I mean, I like my coding style, it works for me and it has advantages.
Upon further reflection, especially after looking at the deleterious effects of having different coding styles on a project, I now think that having, and enforcing a uniform coding style is very important.
But before I continue, let me first explain what I mean by coding style.
Coding style goes past code formatting and what is commonly known as coding standards, though I think coding standards should include, where possible, coding styles as well.
Elements that fall under coding style include
The advantage of having a uniform coding style is a similar advantage to that which you get from utilising patterns. If you use a uniform coding style, then pieces of code become easily recognisable and familiar. Comprehensibility is significantly enhanced, largely because I'm seeing patterns recurring in the code, analogous to what occurs when I use patterns in design. I am familiar with that pattern so I know what the code is doing at that point. Furthermore, if a lot of though has gone into the coding style, it will probably enforce the most readable/most efficient and just plain best way of doing things. A naive example is when iterating over a list, always use an iterator. That is a good practice because it allows the collection implementation to change to set or some other collection without causing syntax errors.
But then is the win worth it. What if I do not like the coding style. One of the team leaders at my company legislated that on his project you cannot use "iterator" or "iter" as a variable name. You have to have a more descriptive name. I did not agree with that and probably would not have subscribed to that requirement had a I worked on a project with him. That would have been a counter productive approach however. There is no technical reason for using "iter" or "iterator" as variable names so for the sake of code uniformity I should have subscribed to his request. Rather have uniform code than keep the team ecstatic about what you're doing.
I thought, that's interesting, and it's not something that I'd want to do. I mean, I like my coding style, it works for me and it has advantages.
Upon further reflection, especially after looking at the deleterious effects of having different coding styles on a project, I now think that having, and enforcing a uniform coding style is very important.
But before I continue, let me first explain what I mean by coding style.
Coding style goes past code formatting and what is commonly known as coding standards, though I think coding standards should include, where possible, coding styles as well.
Elements that fall under coding style include
- whether to have multiple return statements from a method
- Whether to always use an iterator when iterating over a random access collection (List).
The advantage of having a uniform coding style is a similar advantage to that which you get from utilising patterns. If you use a uniform coding style, then pieces of code become easily recognisable and familiar. Comprehensibility is significantly enhanced, largely because I'm seeing patterns recurring in the code, analogous to what occurs when I use patterns in design. I am familiar with that pattern so I know what the code is doing at that point. Furthermore, if a lot of though has gone into the coding style, it will probably enforce the most readable/most efficient and just plain best way of doing things. A naive example is when iterating over a list, always use an iterator. That is a good practice because it allows the collection implementation to change to set or some other collection without causing syntax errors.
But then is the win worth it. What if I do not like the coding style. One of the team leaders at my company legislated that on his project you cannot use "iterator" or "iter" as a variable name. You have to have a more descriptive name. I did not agree with that and probably would not have subscribed to that requirement had a I worked on a project with him. That would have been a counter productive approach however. There is no technical reason for using "iter" or "iterator" as variable names so for the sake of code uniformity I should have subscribed to his request. Rather have uniform code than keep the team ecstatic about what you're doing.
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