Programming Principles That Every Developer Must Know

It has been a long time since the invention of the first computer. Programs played the most crucial role in this revolution, which has changed both working and daily life. Programs that could be developed with simple coding at that time evolved quickly.

Today, software engineering means much more than just coding. First, your software must be easy to understand. Moreover, it must be scalable and maintainable. The only way to become a better programmer is to follow these fundamental principles of software development. Let’s talk about them in a little more detail now.

Single Responsibility

Once you start writing code, you will have modules that perform certain functions. That may seem simple to you. However, it means classes with thousands of lines of code. So, if you want your program to run properly, make sure each module has only a specific functionality. This is the only way to keep these classes clean.

Law of Demeter

In the later stages of coding, the modules become interdependent. That kind of tight coupling reduces flexibility. The solution to this issue is the Law of Demeter. The person who introduced this law in 1987 was Ian Holland. The short and concise definition of the law is as follows: “Each unit must have limited knowledge about other units.”

KISS

KISS stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. Let’s try to explain what this strange expression means now. Nobody wants to deal with something like debugging complex code. This is something that is impossible for a programmer to love. It is also quite challenging to make changes and maintenance in complex codes. This is where KISS comes into play. KISS dictates that the best way to run a system most efficiently is to keep it simple. The simpler the code you write, the easier it will be for other programmers to understand it. So how can you simplify your code? There are two effective ways you can follow:

• Taking out some unnecessary code
• Breaking a complex problem into smaller chunks

Encapsulate What Changes

“The only constant is change itself.” You must have heard this saying before. Being familiar with this phrase may help you become a more successful programmer. Because it is also an immutable rule of programming. For this reason, if you want your software to be successful, you must be able to foresee the codes that may change later. If your program contains such codes, you should encapsulate them while writing.

DRY

Here is another strange expression, DRY. It stands for Don’t Repeat Yourself. As the expression may sound strange, what it means is eloquent for programming. Because duplicating the data and logic in your code in this way only helps to lengthen it. This will cause a lot of time to be wasted during modifying, maintaining, and debugging. You only need to implement any piece of code in the source code just once. So, DRY suggests you reduce code duplication in your program. On the other hand, the opposite of DRY is WET. And it means both Write Everything Twice and Waste Everyone’s Time. Isn’t it quite eloquent?

Open-Closed Principle

Once you’re done writing the code, the final version of your program will contain the main functions and options. At this stage, there is something important to do before you share your code with other developers: Marking the sections which should and should not be modified. Open codes indicate that changing these sections will not break the program. On the other hand, closed codes clearly state which ones should not be modified.

SoC

Here is another strange expression, SoC stands for Separation of Concerns. It simply suggests that programs should be set out in sections. You can also call it modulating the software. So, SoC indicates each dataset that fulfills a specific function should be sectioned separately. For example, the section that controls the UI and the sections that control the output must be separated. JavaScript, CSS, and HTML are one of the best examples of SoC. Each language handles different parts of web page dynamics, and each one of them runs independently.

YAGNI

Here’s another strange expression. The meaning of this expression, which makes no sense on its own, is one of the most basic coding principles: You Aren’t Gonna Need It. Every person aims to make future life easier by making plans in advance. However, this is not applicable when it comes to computer programming.
Most programmers write code they think they may need in the future. However, this is rarely appropriate behavior. Because, as we mentioned in many parts of this article, programming is evolving almost at the speed of light. That’s why YAGNI suggests that you won’t actually need the code you think you’ll need in the future. So never code for functionality that you may need in the future. This will save you from wasting your time.

Document Your Coding

You may document your study in your filing system as you can document it inside your code. Moreover, make sure to include comments in these documents on what your code does. These comments will guide other programmers to understand your code.

Learn From Your Mistakes

We explain the first step you can take to become a better programmer in the last: You should admit before you even start that you can make a lot of mistakes while writing code. The sooner you accept this, the sooner you will have the opportunity to learn from your mistakes. If you’ve taken this step to become a better programmer, document any mistakes you make while writing code.

Bonus: Some Advice to Developers

These days, when the need for complex software is high, it is quite important to write understandable and clean code. However, it is not possible to achieve this in a single day. It requires a lot of practice. You must change your approach to problems that you cannot solve. Also, you should not forget that the way to be a good programmer is to be a good team member. How successful your project depends on you as well as other team members. You need to realize that you don’t have to be a star coder on the team to be a good programmer. You can achieve greater success in a team of average coders who do their job well.

Programming Principles That Every Developer Must Know, In Short

As long as our civilization’s dependence on machines increases, we will need software more. We can extend this from simple mobile apps to developing much more complex computer programs. However, whatever the purpose, the basic principles that every developer should know about coding will always exist. In this article, we aimed to inform you about this context. We hope this guide has enlightened you on the basic principles you need to know about software development.