Testing and Code Quality

Abstract

Whether the system you are working on is big or small, as mentioned in the beginning of this book, the codebase's integrity is very important. Following some basic rules, like proper naming conventions, neat code structure, and just careful coding, will have an effect on the codebase's integrity. Easy-to-read code is slightly harder to break than code that is badly structured. The easier it is to read and follow the code, the easier it becomes to make changes to it. As Harold Abelson wrote in Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, “Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.” Proper naming conventions can also lead to code that will be less prone to introducing bugs than badly named variables, functions, and classes.