I Have Standards

22 Sep 2016

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For a while, I’ve been curious about coding standards in different organizations. How do successful tech companies like google organize their code? I’ve used their standards in previous website projects, but it seems like many times good standards are unclear or hard to find.

I see great value in coding standards; they provide order and improve collaboration and compatibility between different systems. I find that documentation of code segments helps greatly with understanding code. Also, the arrangement and styling of code helps immensely with keeping everything organized. Having an excess of nested curly brackets, square brackets, and parentheses makes it difficult for me to distinguish between different sections. However having an editor or IDE with color coding can help with that as well.

I like the way code standard checking is automated in an IDE like IntelliJ IDEA. The way an IDE streamlines and automates so many aspects of programming is very helpful. In the past I would try to incorporate code standards just by memory and manually comparisons. However with the fallibility of human error, maintaining consistency in code standards often proved to be difficult.

Some of the standards in the .eslintrc files contrast with my style, but also make me rethink how I should code. Sometimes I like to add spaces between parentheses nested in other parentheses, and the eslint file flags uses of that practice. If I can figure out my own standard, I could probably create my own eslint file.

Another standard that I wonder about is in the practice of naming conventions. From what I’ve read about creating databases and tables, it is best to keep consistent in naming tables as singular. I also like to use underscores or dashes instead of spaces in most cases, just in case the files eventually are uploaded onto a webpage.

Looking forward to the future of my adventures in coding, I hope to use standard checking and conventions as my map to elegant and easily understandable code!