Fundamentals of Software Engineering by Nathaniel Schutta and Jakub Pilimon

Author:Nathaniel Schutta and Jakub Pilimon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Published: 2023-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

What is Good Code?

Of course there won’t always be a library or language feature to solve your problem. You will, of course, write code! And you may ask yourself, well, what is good code? To paraphrase Potter Stewart, good code can be hard to define but you know it when you see it. Admittedly, good vs bad code can be a very subjective concept. After a while you start to develop a sense for it and you may even say code has a smell to it. For example, overly long methods are generally a bad thing, but you still need to examine the code; there may not be a simpler approach. Few developers will ever admit to writing bad code, but anyone who’s ever opened an editor is guilty of some less than stellar software.

Metrics can provide insight into your codebase. For example, cyclomatic complexity can tell you how many there are within your source code, with more paths indicating more complex code that would likely benefit from refactoring. Many languages have source code analyzers like PMD, SonarQube, and JSHint which can help prevent certain types of bugs and bad coding practices from infesting the source code. Tools like SonarQube and CodeScene can provide invaluable insight into your codebase. Odds are, your organization has something. If you’re not sure, ask around. If they don’t, why not spearhead the effort to bring one into your project?

While metrics should never be blindly followed, for example, some complexity just can’t be avoided! You must apply common sense to any rule of thumb because, in some instances, applying the common rule may actually make things worse. However, you can take advantage of the Hawthorne effect which says people modify their behavior when they’re observed.1 You can absolutely use that to your advantage on a project! For example, if you want more of the code to be covered by tests, prominently display the code coverage stats.

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