I have just been introduced to coding standards and they have already made my coding-life easier. Coding standards are so much more than just the way your code looks. While many people see coding standards as the “rules” that describe where you should put spaces, curly braces, new lines, etc. However, I have learned that coding standards are actually really useful to help you learn the programming language and coding standards make it easier for you to collaborate with other people who are programming using the same coding standards.
Coding according to coding standards has made it even more obvious for me to see where certain mistakes are made. Sometimes, when you have been staring at your screen for a long time, you start to lose sight of certain things, and coding standards definitely help you keep track of what is going on in certain places. It alerts you when you have a function that is never used or variables that are never used. It helps you make your code readable and therefore it is easier to analyze it and learn from mistakes that are in your code.
I believe coding standards can definitely help you learn a language. Whenever I learn a new language, it is always nice to have certain guidelines of what I should do and shouldn’t do, just to make it a bit more organized in my head. Coding standards are exactly that. They provide a structured way to use the language, which helps me understand the language better. By understanding it better, I am able to learn it quicker. I’ve been using ESLint with IntelliJ for about a week now, and so far I really like it. It has helped me make sure my code is readable and I think ESLint provides really good feedback for every error that they give. It has helped me learn a lot to understand the code better and in a more organized way.
Another major advantage of coding according to coding standards is that other people who also code according to those coding standards can easily read and/or use your code. It makes the code a more universal language among the people who also adhere to the same standards. By doing this, it is easier to collaborate with other people, because they can very easily understand your code, because they are coding the same way.
This also makes it easier to ask for and receive help when you are stuck. If you are stuck, it is very helpful that your code is readable and understandable for someone else to look over it. Coding standards definitely make sure that it is, and so another person can look at your code, understand it, and hopefully see what goes wrong and where. This also leads to being able to learn quicker and better, because it makes you learn from your mistakes and that is the best way to learn!
All the things I’ve mentioned above have proven that coding standards do more than just making your code look pretty. But, as you could have guessed from the title, coding standards are also very useful to make your code look good. It provides a very strict way on where to put certain things in your code, and just makes it more organized overall. So yes, coding standards are also just very useful to make your code look really appealing.
I really think that coding standards are very helpful to help you become a good coder. Yes, they do tell you where to put spaces, curly braces, and all those other things, but that does so much more that just making your code look good. It helps you understand the language in a deeper way and it provides you with a very organized way to learn the language. By coding according to certain coding standards, your code is more universally understandable which makes it easier to collaborate with other people, or ask for help when you are stuck. Both of these things lead to you learning more about the language and becoming a better coder! Thus, coding standards are definitely very useful.