Just went to 1992.... Should be 1992.. I remember my mom was waking me at morning 5:30 for an exam.... Hmmm.... Thats too early.... I still remember how sleepy I felt... She was asking me to write something and I was scribbling.
Mom: Don't scribble (Bang..... a nice hit on my head).
Me: zzzzzzzzzzz........................zzzzzzzzzzz
Mom: Wake up.... Don't sleep....... you have to score first in the class......
Me: I feel sleepy.... What do I want to do now......
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2000.... At the school...
Me: Teacher... All my answers are right... but why have you reduced 1 mark per question?????
Teacher: Don't scribble.... Just present it well to get full marks....
Me: Why do I want to present well, the test is conducted to know that I have learnt it or not.....
Teacher: Ofcourse you are right... but, how can I know that, if I cant read what you have written???
Me: ??????
Teacher: Writing neat is a good practice.. it helps you to read your answer paper at any age. May be now you can read your handwriting but when you grow you may not be able to read the same. So it is better to write neat that you can read it for ever in the lifetime.
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2002.... I am not sure about the date..... At NIIT , Coimbatore
Friend: Sujai...... Could you please help me in debugging this problem.
Me: Yes... Let me look in to the code....
After looking at the code....
Me: ??#?#%$#^$%^$^$^&%&%&
Me: Friend, I think you need to write the code better..... because I can't read it. Programing is not just making things work for now... but writing something that works for ever / maintainable for ever.
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2008... Started my career as Software Engg.
Kari: Sujai.... write the code cleaner. It is always now or it will never happen again.
Sujai: mmmm.....
Kari: Give a space... here.. Why are the variables not understandable......
Yes, I started to learn it better, Still learning to write a neat code, This will evolve for ever...
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Through out the career, I have observed more scribbled code, than neat code. It is because, most of us are not evolving further, after we start our career. We think of making things work on a rough go and finally we scribble to write faster code. Writing a clean code needs time in the early stages to practice but later you are in the same speed, like the rest.
Anonymous: Hey.... Stop saying about clean code.... What do you say it clean or neat..
Me: Basically, a clean code is a code without bug... but am not mentioning that.. I am saying how to write a code that looks beautiful / readable for anyone.
The industry comes up with too many standards to write a good code. I just want the PHP developers to follow one among them rather than scribbling.
Few known standards
- Zend Coding Style - http://zendframework.com/manual/en/coding-standard.coding-style.html
- Pear Coding Style - http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.php
- Drupal Coding Style - http://drupal.org/coding-standards
We have too many standards... Ofcourse we have our own standard. But it is better that our standard matches the existing standards...
I would recommend to use Zend Coding Style, it explains better than others. I have my own style, which mostly meets to all the above standards with very few changes..
Question: Hey I have a team, How can I insist this to everyone, Things will run out of control. We can't have someone dedicated to look into the code of everyone to keep it better...
Answer: Use phpcs (php code sniffer). Set a standard on your own or derive from industry standards, finally ask everyone to pass the phpcs validation, before they deliver the code.
The coding style is like a handwriting for a person, which need to be readable and understandable by everyone. Don't try to make your coding style unique... try to to match to the standards so it would be easy for everyone to follow when they need to continue your work.....
Hope, This post explains, why and how(refer to the links above) to write a clean code...
Hope, This post explains, why and how(refer to the links above) to write a clean code...
Soon, An article on how to use our own phpcs standards and use it in the team will be posted, keep reading.
