Coding standards, often regarded as trivial, hold a high significance in the world of software engineering. They include guidelines on indentation, brace placement, naming conventions, and more. While some may argue that they are trivial, I firmly believe that if there is one software engineering technique that can significantly enhance code quality, it is coding standards. I will discuss the importance of coding standards, their role in mastering programming languages, and share my personal impressions on using ESLint with IntelliJ.
Coding standards are more than just a set of rules governing code formatting. They serve as a common language for developers, ensuring consistency and readability in a codebase. Here are several reasons why coding standards are essential:
When you have consistent coding standards throughout the entire project, the project as a whole becomes much easier to read and maintain, especially for potential new collaborators. It becomes much simpler for anyone to understand, update, and most importantly debug the code.
Briefly mentioned before, implementing coding standards is essential in a team setting. Without having to worry about individual coding style preferences, everyone on the team can work seamlessly on the same project.
Code reviews become more efficient when coding standards are in place. Reviewers can focus on logic and architecture rather than getting bogged down in formatting issues.
Speaking from personal experience, I can say with confidence that enforcing coding standards will help you learn a programming language. I learned everything I know about front-end development from an internship that I was a part of during freshman and sophomore year. Prior to this internship I was only confident in Java, ultimately learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, along with working with many different frameworks that I’ve never even heard of before. We had strict coding standards that allowed us to learn the best practices for each language, for error prevention, and keeping everything consistent while also understanding why coding standards are important. With certainty, these coding standards sped up my process for learning these languages exponentially.
At first, I did think ESLint was a little painful to always have to check for the error marks before being able to do anything with my code. However, now that I’m a little more familiar with the coding standards that ESLint enforces, I’m able to keep my code organized and consistent which also helps me with debugging when I run into real coding errors. It has also helped me with enforcing the best practices for JavaScript, as sometimes I don’t know what is best.
In conclusion, coding standards are far from trivial. They are the cornerstone of software engineering excellence. They improve code readability, reduce errors, and facilitate language mastery. My experience with ESLint and IntelliJ has highlighted the initial challenges of adhering to coding standards but also demonstrated the long-term benefits they bring to code quality and developer knowledge.