Clean Code
Best Tips and Tricks in the World of Clean Coding
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Table of Contents
Introduction
As obvious as it might appear, not everyone still agrees that clean code matters. But if you have ever had to spend hours wading through an ocean of tangled codes with several hidden pitfalls, you will most likely agree that clean code indeed matters. In fact, I dare say that any programmer with significant experience would have been impeded by messy code at one time or the other.
Of course, the degree of the slowdown may vary from one case to another. If you are lucky, you may find some hint or clue that will help you make sense of the otherwise senseless code. But there are cases where the degree of slowdown is quite significant. It may take teams of programmers years trying to sift through the mess. An otherwise fast project may slow down to snails pace. Every change you make to the code will break another part of the code. Every modification may cause the code to become even more twisted and tangled.
Over time, messy code grows even messier and more difficult to clean up. Work grinds to a halt as productivity diminishes. There are countless examples of companies that have been brought down by bad code. An otherwise good product might meet an unfortunate end due to bad codes. A badly transcribed formula, with a line of code missing, led to the Mariner 1 space rocket being wrongly launched, ultimately costing a whopping $80 million. There are several other examples of rockets mis-launch like this due to bad code. Another famous example is the race condition bug in the Thorac-25 radiation therapy machine, which caused the machine to deliver lethal doses of radiation, leading to the death of three people.
The quality of code also determines the maintainability of a product. As features are added, or changes are made to any product, time will pass, and the original developer may move on from the project or forget some details of the code. If the quality of the code was bad, to begin with, such changes could become a lot more complex and risky to make.
As a programmer, you should consider yourself as an author. While it may seem that your target audience is your computer, this is not always the case. Proponents of clean code say you should write code as if your target audience is other programmers and yourself. You (or some other programmer) will have to read old code to write new ones). If your code is not clean, more time will be spent on reading code than on writing.
Writing clean code ultimately makes the code easier to grasp going forward. Clean code is essential for the creation of maintainable products. But writing clean code requires learning how to make disciplined use of several little techniques that are applied through an acquired sense of cleanliness. This unique code-sense is central to the art of writing clean code. It is a natural endowment for some programmers. But most people have to go through the learning process of acquiring code sense painstakingly. And this is what we have set out to learn in this book-the best tips and tricks in the world of clean coding. These tips will not only help you to recognize bad code but to write clean codes yourself.
Being able to recognize messy code is not enough. After all, being able to recognize bad art doesnt automatically make you a great artist yourself. Only a programmer with good code-sense will be able to look at messy code and see ways changes and variations can be made to clean it up. That is what this book is all about, learning the sequence of transformative behavior that will help you write clean and elegant code.
Chapter 1: What is Clean Code?
Even if you are one of those that agree that messy code is a significant problem in programming, this is just one step on the long road to writing elegantly clean code. There is still the question of how to write clean code. This all-important question can only be answered if you know what clean code is in the first place.
Writing clean code is quite similar to painting a picture. Most of us can tell when a picture has been painted badly and can easily appreciate great artistry when we see it. But being able to appreciate the beauty of good art does not make you a great painter. Still, this sense of appreciation of good art is an essential skill every great artist must-have. This same applies to clean coding too. Knowing what clean code is, is the very first step in writing it. So, Lets begin with the question. What is clean code?
Clean Code-Definitions
Like almost everything in life, the concept of clean code is subjective. Put any 2 or 3 human beings in a room, and you will most likely have varying opinions on the same subject matter. Even if they can reach a sort of consensus after long periods of argument, most times, the consensus is merely nothing more than agreeing to disagree with each person still holding on to their own believes about the subject matter.
For a field as diverse as software development, this is a problem you can expect with any concept. Developers cant even seem to agree on which programming language is the best in their field. Hence, you can expect multiple (and sometimes widely differing) opinions about what clean code is. Thankfully, clean code does not rely on any language-specific rules. The tricks and tips you will find in this book are language-agnostic principles that are somewhat generally accepted by the entire developer community no matter their language of choice.
Still, that does not mean clean code means the same thing to everyone. Here is probably the simplest definition of clean code you will find around:
Clean code is code that is very easy to understand and also easy to change.
Of course, this definition is simple and seems to be pretty much straightforward. But a close look will reveal a problem that is all too common. Different people have varying opinions about what easy to understand or easy to change is. Essentially, this definition has stated something without actually stating anything at all at the same time. To put things in a better perspective, we will examine some definitions of clean code put forward by various renowned programmers whose knowledge and experience we can trust.
