Best Way to Become a Great Programmer

The present century is known as an information and communication era. Every year a large number of young and fresh graduates workforce join the industry as developers. They are starting this journey by practicing the coding standards that they have learned during their academic life which may not be the one followed in the industry. However, it is always better to inculcate the best practices in programming from the early days of student life. If you are looking to make a career as a developer whose work is acknowledged by his senior, lead, managers, and the client for this, you need to follow the best and standard practices while writing the code.

The Golden Rule:

1. Always First understand the requirement and chalk out a rough guideline what are the steps to be followed to fulfil the requirement

Whenever a developer gets a task assigned, he/she should first understand the business needs and technical requirements. Once the requirement is understood chalk out the way, you will go ahead to fulfil the requirements given to you.

2. While Coding, Follow The Best And Standard Practices For The Language You Would Be Using

Each programming language is having its own set of best practices that one should follow while coding it. These practices are defined by those who have developed the language.

3. Follow A Specific File Naming, Class Naming, And Function Naming Convention

While doing a project follow a uniform file naming, class naming, and function naming convention. The naming of file, class, and function should be meaningful, and it should reflect what exactly operations/functionality are included in the file/ class/function.

4. Use Proper Indentation While Coding

A code can be called a good code if anyone else can read it and understand which operations it performs. Indentation helps to identify the start and end of each block of condition/looping statement. Proper indentation is very helpful when you try to debug the time.

5. Use Comments To Represent What Operation The Code Performs

While you are writing code, try to use comments. At the start of the file, use comments to mention what will be achieved by executing the file. Before writing a conditional statement or looping statement describes the reason for which it would be used. Also, mention the variables that are being declared and what do they capture and represent in the file.

6. Debug The Program For Identifying Any Initial Errors

Once the coding/module is written, debug it to identify whether any bugs are present and all the operations are performed correctly, and make sure no unnecessary variable declarations and memory are utilized.

7. Use Memory Allocation And Deallocation Efficiently

Use memory allocation and deallocation properly. One should focus on using the concept of constant, global, and local variables effectively. The memory allocated to the class and variable should be deallocated at the end of the class and file so as the program does not become heavy in terms of memory conception.

8. Check The Dependencies Of Classes, Packages, Methods, Field

The dependencies can hamper the reusability of the code. One should focus on making sure that the dependencies of the classes, packages, methods, and fields allow you maximum re-usability. One should try to avoid dependencies.

9. One Should Try To Make Code Reusable

Many of the programming languages used in industry now are an object-oriented programming language. The OOPs concept gives the developer more freedom and control, reusing the code. Developers should try to follow more OOPs concepts while writing the code.

10. Strictly Adhere To The Design Document And Functional Documents

One should strictly adhere to the design document and the functional document while completing the project if changes are being made in design or functionality, the same changes must be mentioned in the design and functional documents.

11. Programmers Should Perform Rigorous Unit Testing And Semi-Regression Testing

The one who writes the code is the first person to test it. As a developer, a rigorous unit testing should be performed at the start itself. When the developers integrate different modules similarly semi-regression testing should be performed as the developers are the one who knows exactly what is going to happen as they are the one who has written the code and integrated them together.

12. Code Review Should Be Performed On A Regular Basis

Developers working together should perform a review on a regular basis, say weekly. Code reviews will help to make the code more readable, and will also help to remove any bugs or errors which might be missed by the developer who has written the code. The one who writes the code may not find a bug, but if someone else can identify the same, the probability of error-free code increases. It also makes sure that someone else in the team knows the code which is very helpful when the developer who worked on a specific module is on leave so someone else can make sure that the work doesn’t get stuck. Code reviews can be performed by a team member, senior, or team lead, and they can ensure that the coding standard and protocols have been followed properly.

14. Code Optimization

The code optimization can be performed by a skilled developer who could be lead and supervised by the senior and new developers might not possess the necessary skills and experience for optimizing the code. Code Optimization helps to improve the quality of code, and its efficiency by reducing the number of lines in a program, less execution time and consume less memory.

15. Create A Code Document While Coding

Currently, every organization is shifting towards agile methodology due to which there is a lack of documentation as more focus is towards rapid development. So a developer should still try to develop a code document where he/she can mention all the details regarding the file naming, class naming, function naming, and variable declaration and the operations that are performed by respective individual files and the details regarding the changes done during the project. This document will help the other team members if a team member is absent to go ahead and continue her work and the project deadlines are met perfectly.

16. Try To Keep The Code Simple