Building Future-Proof Code: Strategies for Writing Maintainable Software
Writing a maintainable code is one topic a developer will come across sometime during his/her journey. The benefits derived from writing a maintainable code is obviously huge especially the ability to expand existing code base. So I decided to write my own personal view on writing a maintainable code.
What is Code Maintainability?
Code maintainability is a crucial aspect of software development. Maintaining code involves not only writing it but also ensuring that it remains understandable, adaptable, and easy to work with over time.
Ways of writing a maintainable code
- Clear and Descriptive Naming: This can’t be hammered enough. It involves using meaningful names for variables, functions, classes, and modules, basically everything in the code folder. Avoiding abbreviations and cryptic names that make it hard to understand the purpose and functionality of your code will go a long way. It also helps when someone else reads the piece of code with the aim to understand what it’s all about because no one will be willing to contribute to something they have no idea what it’s all about.
In the picture above, the name given to the function was “fn” which by itself isn't descriptive at all, someone seeing the code will know that this is a function but will not have an idea of what the function does unless the person reads it over and over again. In the example above it’s much easier to see that what the function does is just to add three numbers together but in a much bigger project it won’t be as straight forward as this.
In this picture above with good naming, even without looking at the implementation of the function, from the name alone, you can already see that all what this function does is to calculate a total with a discount, so you already know what to expect just from reading the function name alone.
- Consistent Formatting: Adhere to a consistent code formatting style throughout the project. This improves readability and makes it easier for multiple developers to collaborate. This can be done by using a popular tool like prettier and having a file called “.prettierrc” which can then be shared to everyone on the same team that is contributing to a particular source code so that each and everyone of them can have the same style of code formatting.
- Modularization: This is another way to one can use to develop a maintanable code. It involves Breaking down your code into smaller, self-contained modules or functions. Each module or function should have a specific purpose and be responsible for a well-defined task, an if it’s possible, a function shouldn’t be performing more than one task.
- Comments and Documentation: This is very key and cannot be stressed enough. Write clear and concise comments to explain complex logic, algorithms, or decision-making processes. Also, provide comprehensive documentation that outlines the purpose, usage, and expected behavior of your code. This doesn’t only help others in understanding your code, it also helps you to understand the code if you come back to the same code like after a year.
In the example above, you can see a function that is well documented and easy to understand. From the naming of the function to the comments, everything is easy to understand so that anyone including you who wrote the code can come back after a long while, read the code and still understand what the code does.
- Avoid Magic Numbers and Strings: This means that numbers or strings shouldn’t just be written anywhere or everywhere in the code, replace hardcoded numbers and strings with named constants or variables, the name given to the variables should also be self explanatory. This improves code readability and makes future changes easier.
- DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) Principle: This basically means to avoid duplicating code. Once you see yourself writing some lines of code more than once to perform a specific task, that an indicator that such task should be wrapped into a function and the function called whenever you want to perform the task, not only functions can be used, classes also can be used to wrap lines of code. This makes it very easy to perform updates, updating in a single place is way easier than looking for lines of code all over the code base.
- Version Control: Use a version control system like Git to track changes and collaborate with other developers. Commit small and logical changes with meaningful commit messages, rolling back to a previous version and so on. There are so many benefits that can be derived from a version control but my main one which helps with code maintainability is, it helps as a form of backup for your codebase incase of any accident that may occur on the local copy, the latest version can always be retrieved from the remote repository.
- Testing: Write unit tests, integration tests, and other automated tests to ensure that your code behaves as expected. Tests act as a safety net when making changes in the future. Once changes are made in the future, running the test and getting a positive results ensures that nothing has been broken in the code.
- Use Design Patterns: Familiarize yourself with common design patterns that solve recurring design problems such as Singleton Pattern, Observer Pattern, Decorator Pattern and so on. Applying these patterns can lead to more organized and maintainable code.
- Code Reviews: Engage in code reviews with peers. Getting feedback from others can help identify potential issues and provide insights into improving maintainability.
- Keep it Simple: Strive for simplicity in your code. Avoid unnecessary complexity, and prioritize readability over cleverness.
In conclusion writing a code that can be easily maintained is very essential which makes contributing more easier. There is a saying that when writing a piece of code, write it in a way that the person who will read it after you is a serial killer. Therefore make sure you write it well so someone doesn’t come chasing after you.
Thank you for reading (•‿•)
