Hunting Down The Mythical High-Quality Code

Due to the massive innovation and advancement in technology, coding and programming are more important than ever. It is one of the most important job skills out there and without people programming, much of our software, hardware and other technology simply wouldn’t work. Coding is at the core of every piece of software, app, and website that you use.

However, not all code is created equal. Some code out there is low quality, while others are of high quality. Of course, a high-quality code is better and more preferred, but what exactly makes code “high quality”? It can be a difficult question to ask, but this article is going to look at a few factors and qualities that made high-quality code.

It Needs To Be Clear

For the code to be accepted as high quality, it needs to be clear. This means that in addition to you being able to understand and follow it, others need to be able to as well. If others don’t understand how the code is written, it will be difficult for the code to gain any sort of traction.

Also, the easier the code is to understand, the easier it will be to maintain. This means people will be able to work on, improve and grow the code without having to constantly come to you for assistance. This makes it much easier to bring in new developers to the project. Oftentimes, companies will bring in new programmers frequently, and they will need to be able to comprehend the code to be able to add to it.

So what are some things you can do to write code that is more clear? Well, there are a number of things that professionals suggest. This includes naming variables in a way others will understand, using #define a lot, leave comments on your code, and not making the code more complex than it needs to be.

Make Sure It Is Stable

The stability of your code is also of the utmost importance to ensure it is high quality. If the code isn’t stable, there is an increased risk of hacking and also a greater chance that it could become corrupted or experience other errors. No matter how careful or skilled a programmer is, errors occur and it is our job to ensure our code is stable enough to allow us to manage those errors.

If you don’t create stable code or don’t believe you make any errors, you could potentially experience some crashes. These could lead to downtime, which experts claim can lead to well over $100,000 in costs.

While searching through your code manually to find errors or soft spots in terms of stability, that could take quite a while and there are no guarantees you will be able to find things either. Instead, you should utilize a log management or monitoring tool to ensure you are always alerted when an error or issue arrives.

If you want to learn more about log management, be sure to check out this resource: Configuring centralized logging from Python apps · Papertrail log management.

Make Sure It Is Correct

As you could imagine, for a code to truly be of high quality it needs to be accurate and correct. You created and wrote the code for some reason, and you need to be sure it is able to do what it is intended to do, in full. Testing is incredibly important for this step and will ensure there are no spots where the code is incorrect or invalid. Without testing, you will have a hard time knowing whether your code truly works as intended.

Make sure to test each function of the code in-depth, as the code might seem correct to the naked or untrained eye, and if you don’t inspect close enough, you could miss the fact it only does 5 of the required 6 functions. While testing code over and over again can be monotonous at times, it will ensure it is correct.

Get It Reviewed

You might be skilled and well versed in the area of coding, but four eyes (or more) is always better than two. Once you have written code and feel it is done, pass it off to someone and have them review it. Not only will they potentially catch issues, but could also give you some good and honest feedback.

Now how do you find someone to review your code? Well, if you have co-workers or friends that are knowledgeable in the space, that is a good place to start. However, even then they might be unwilling to be honest with you. Instead, it is generally a good idea to hire someone or turn to the internet. There are several forums and services out there that will be able to help you, as well.

You should take their feedback and apply it to your code. There are also no rules about only having one person review your code, as you can enlist multiple people to check it out. While everyone has their tactics for reviewing code, there are some best practices that people should use if need be. These include reviewing less than 400 lines of code at a time, taking your time, setting goals, capturing metrics and only reviewing for about an hour or less at a time.

In conclusion, hopefully, this article has helped you learn more about what goes into a high-quality code and how you can ensure all of the code that you write and create is high quality.

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