The Power of Coding Standards
12 Feb 2025
What are Coding Standards
Coding standards are rules to follow when you code because these rules help make the code look more organized, neat, and readable to others. For example, many people who code usually have proper indentation and spacing within their code. This is to help with making the code look more organized, and clean and make it easier when it comes to debugging. Another example is to use the curly braces when writing if/else statements or for loops. Remembering to use the curly braces, helps with avoiding errors. Following these rules will not only make the code look cleaner and neat, but it can also make you a better coder.
A way for developers to practice coding standards is to use ESLint. ESLint is a code analysis tool for JavaScript and TypeScript. It helps developers follow coding standards by identifying and fixing problems in their code. Ultimately, ESLint is a helpful tool if you want to get better at following coding standards.
Experiences with ESLint
Before trying ESLint, I had experience with VSCode from a previous class but I had never used, or heard of an ESLint and I would say that I do follow the coding standards when I write code. However, when I was using ESLint for the first time, I came across a bunch of errors and warnings in my code because there was no proper indentation and space within my code. So, when it came to fixing these errors and warnings, it felt frustrating and tedious to do because I had to go line by line to fix them. However, as I continued to practice coding, I started to get used to writing cleaner and more organized code and started to see why I needed to follow the coding standard. Using ESLint helped me eliminate bad habits, such as inconsistent spacing, unused variables, and missing semicolons, which might seem insignificant but can accumulate into bigger problems in larger projects. In the future, I will keep following the coding standards that ESLint has taught and I will continue to follow these coding standards.
Importance of Coding Standards
The importance of coding standards is to help teach developers how to properly format and structure code. Writing code that follows a standard format makes it easier to collaborate with other developers. When everyone sticks to the same style, debugging becomes smoother, and understanding someone else’s code takes less effort. Additionally, it makes the code look cleaner and more organized to look at.