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What is good code?

 
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Hi GUys,

In an interview, if you are asked "what is good code" what would you say?

Regards
Saliya
 
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In short: Something that implement(fullfil) user requirements
[ June 26, 2005: Message edited by: Shahid Afridi ]
 
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Originally posted by Saliya Jinadasa:
In an interview, if you are asked "what is good code" what would you say?


Unless you hire me,I won't reveal the secret.
 
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Hi Shahid !

In short: Something that implement(fullfil) user requirements

I would say no, absolutely not on a strategical point of view.
Your answer would be very true for an architect who may drift easily from this main purpose, but the developper does this by nature under team leader's supervision so it is not something remarkable.

I would absolutely say in the scope of an interview : "good code is code easy to maintain and refactorize, and well commented".

Best regards.
 
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Something - easy to understand by others.
 
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Good code is (or has)...

  • Very easy to read (even at the expense of some performance)
  • Reasonable performance (fast enough)
  • Robust (doesn't crash during normal use)
  • Modular (encapsulation, object oriented, etc)
  • Works (does what the customer needs)


  • How's that?
     
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    Originally posted by Jared Richardson:
    Good code is (or has)...

  • Very easy to read (even at the expense of some performance)
  • Reasonable performance (fast enough)
  • Robust (doesn't crash during normal use)
  • Modular (encapsulation, object oriented, etc)
  • Works (does what the customer needs)


  • How's that?


    Agree,
    I would add : Properly commented, OOP, API, predefined libraries used wisely (There are many developers who would use these inappropriately).

    Code that fulfills user requirements can be disgustingly written, which happens about 70% of the time(my personal experience)
     
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    I would expect the organisation's coding standards to be adhered to. If these don't exist, then some recognised standards must be followed.

    I reviewed some code (written by an outsource company but I'm sure that it happens with inhouse code as well) which had package names like ABCD_UC (ABCD being the name of the application). I soon got that corrected ..
     
    Greenhorn
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    I wish I had kept a copy of a program I once had to mod.

    It had method names like 'snowfalling' and 'sunnyday'.

    The programmer who wrote it was of course still a legend many years after leaving the company.
     
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    Good code is what I write.

    My standard of good is short, clean, efficient (usually a natural side effect of the first two) and commented well enough that you don't have to tie your mind in knots trying to figure out A) what it's supposed to be doing and B) how it's doing it.

    Note that good code != good program. A program can be full of absolutely beautiful code and not do what the users want/need. Conversely, most of the systems I know of that have been truly popular are full of really ugly programming.

    Djikstra wrote a short book on what was excellence and beauty in code. Can't remember the title offhand.
     
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