Coding Guidelines
Scenario
I like writing code my way, but it's different from the rest of my team
Key Takeaways
Guidelines are project dependent - ask your leads
If you are a lead, come up with a starting set of guidelines (they can always be updated later)
Refine guidelines through the Feedback process
Enforces consistency between developers and within individual code
If the style is enforce programmatically, making changes is easy
Propose guidelines if none exist
It's a lot easier to get buy-in on a draft than asking for one to be created
Don't get too bogged down by guidelines. They are nice to have, but shouldn't halt progress
Use tools to automatically format code
VSCode - "Format code" in toolbar
Coding Guidelines
Naming conventions for variables and functions
Make names easy to understand
Avoid ambiguous abbreviations
Magic values
Unclear why they were chosen, units
Keep use case in mind
Consider context when developing and commenting
If on a sensitive project, don't use sensitive terminology or terms in comments on an otherwise non-sensitive project - saves review and cleanup time later
Formatting
Tabs vs spaces (this is important in some languages, like Python)