Standardizing Success Through Coding Standards
08 Feb 2024
I love coding standards
The significance of coding standards cannot be overstated. It serves as the guiding principles for writing, organizing, and maintaining code. It enhances collaboration, efficiency, and overall code quality. Why wouldn’t one want their code to look pretty? Why wouldn’t one want their code to be consistent? Why wouldn’t one want their code to be readable and easy to understand (especially for other people trying to make sense of the code their reading)?
After having coded for a while, I believe that all people start to develop their own coding style. Whether it be how the space out their assignments, comparators, operations, etc., whether it be what line they place ther curley bracec or how they indent their code, people find their own way to format and write their code consistently. I am no exception. I like to be consistent and write my code all the same. But just like everyone else, I am only human. I’m not perfect. My coding style won’t even be the same as someone else’s coding style. Sometimes my coding isn’t even always consistent. Sometimes I forget to put spaces in places I normally would. Sometimes my indentation is a bit off when copying code. The point is that as humans we are going to make mistakes sometimes. But simply executing the code we typed isn’t going to tell us that we made a mistake. The compiler doesn’t care about my coding style. It’ll execute regardless and I’d be none the wiser. Is the only way to make sure our code is consistent and up to standards by manually going through it and checking on our own?
Introducing ESLint!
After having used ESLing for only a week, I can already say without a doubt it is wonderful. It lets me know when my code isn’t following a specified standard. It’ll let me know where I’m missing a space or don’t need a space. It’ll let me know to add a newline at the end of my code. It’ll let me know all kinds of things that a compiler wouldn’t, and I love that for me. I love that for my code. And I’m sure other people love that for my code as well when they’re reading it. I find it extremely satisfying fixing formatting issues and putting my mind at ease knowing my code is consistent and well kept.
There’s a certain level of perfectionism, ocd, or whatever you want to call it that I believe every coder has or should have in them when writing code. I think one would have to be slightly psychotic to write code without a care in the world for it’s consistency and formatting.