"The art of Writing readable code" reading notes

Source: Internet
Author: User
"The art of Writing readable code" reading notes

Objective

This book is designed to help you write better code

1th Chapter code should be easy to understand

What makes the code "better"

Basic theorem of readability

The code should be written so that others can understand the time it takes to minimize it.

Is it always as small as possible?

Minimizing the time required to understand the code is a better goal

Whether the time required to understand the code conflicts with other targets

It doesn't even affect each other.

The hardest part.

Often think other people will think your code is easy to understand and need extra time

The first part surface level improvement

Choose a good name, write a good note, and put the code neatly in a better format

The 2nd chapter puts the information in the name

Choose a professional word

The term distinguishes its function and finds more expressive words.

Avoid generic names like TMP and reveal.

A good name should describe the purpose of the variable or the value it carries

If you need to use a vague name like TMP, lt or retval, then you have a good reason

To take a specific name for an abstract name

When naming a variable, function, or other element, describe it more concretely rather than more abstract.

Attach more information to the name

If there is anything important about a variable that the reader must learn, it is worth adding the extra word to the name.

Values with units, additional important attributes attached

How long should the name be?

The name can't be too long.

Short names can be used in small scopes.

Entering a long name ———— is no longer a problem (the word completion feature of the editor)

Acronyms and abbreviations

Throw away the useless words

Use the format of a name to convey meaning

Hump class name, underscore method name, constant hump plus kconstant prefix, macro is all uppercase underline participle, constructor letter uppercase, jquery object plus $

Destination use case, underline, etc.

The 3rd chapter will not misunderstand the name

Ask yourself a few more times: "Will this name be interpreted by others as something else?" ”

Example: Filter ()

Ambiguous words, do not know the meaning of "pick out" or "Lose"

Example: Clip (text,length)

A semantic word, which may be removed from the tail, or may be cut out for a length of

It is recommended to use first and last to represent the included range

The clearest way to name limits is to add Max or minto the things you want to limit.

It is recommended to use begin and end to denote inclusion/exclusion ranges

To name a Boolean value

When choosing a name for a Boolean variable or a function that returns a Boolean value, make sure that the meaning of true and false returns is clear.

It is best to avoid the use of antisense names. such as ' Disable_ssl '.

Match the expectations of the user

Some names can be misunderstood because users have a preconceived impression of what they mean, even if that's not the way you intended it to be. In this case, it is better to give up the name and use a name that will not be misunderstood.

Example: How to weigh multiple alternative names

Analyze each alternative name and consider the various possibilities that are misleading.

4th Chapter Aesthetic

Making the code easier to read has three principles:

. Use a consistent layout so that readers get used to this style quickly. Make similar code look similar. Grouping related lines of code to form blocks of code

Why is aesthetics so important

Pleasing code is easier to read

Rearranging line breaks brings consistency and compactness

Use a method to sort out irregular things.

Making the code "look good" usually brings an improvement that is not limited to surface level, it may help you to make the code more structured.

Use column alignment when needed

Choose a meaningful order and always use it consistently

With a lot of get parameters to get, we have some ideas for each order in the code that we get:

. Make the order of the variables with the corresponding HTML formMatch the order of the fields. From "most important" to "least important". Sort by alphabetical order

5th Chapter Rewrite what kind of comment

The purpose of the note is to try to help the reader to understand as much as the author

What doesn't need a comment

Do not write comments for facts that can be inferred quickly from the code itself

Do not annotate for comments

Don't comment on bad names ———— should change their names.

Record your thoughts.

Have important ideas when writing code

Standing in the reader's shoes

Imagine what your code looks like for outsiders.

To announce a possible trap

Holistic annotation, taking into account the newcomers, let her familiarize herself with the code base

The last thought ———— overcoming "the author's mental retardation"

The 6th Chapter writes the Concise comments

Comments should have very high information/space rates

Keep Annotations Tight

Avoid the use of ambiguous pronouns

such as it, this

To polish a rough sentence

Accurately describe the behavior of a function

Return the number of lines in this file and count how many newline bytes (' \ n ') is in the file

Use input/output examples to illustrate special situations

Example

Intent to declare code

What are want do

Comment for named function parameter

Default parameter connetc (timeout = ten, user_encryption = False)

Do not, with connet (/* timeout_ms= * *,/* use_encryption = */False)

Use words with high information content

If you feel that a comment is too long, then you can see if you can describe it in a typical programming scenario.

Part II simplifies loops and logic

Try to minimize the "mental burden" in the code

The 7th chapter is easy to read the control rheology

The more "natural" the conditions, cycles, and other changes to the control flow, the better. Use a way to make the reader not stop and reread your code

Order of reference in conditional statements

Compare the left side of the comparison to the right of the "queried" expression, which tends to change the expression used to make comparisons, and its values tend to be constant

If/else the order of statement blocks

. It first deals with the case of positive logic rather than negative logic. For example, use if (debug) instead of if (!debug): Get rid of the simple case first. This approach may also make the if and else visible within the screen. To deal with interesting or questionable situations first.

?: conditional expression (also known as "trinocular expression")

A better measure than the pursuit of minimizing the number of lines of code is to minimize the time that people need to understand it.

By default, If/else is used. Trinocular operator?: Used only in the simplest case

Avoid do/while loops

My experience is that do statements are the source of errors and confusion ... I tend to put the conditions "where I can see before". As a result, I tend to avoid using do statements.

Returning early from the function

The infamous goto

You should avoid using goto

Minimize nesting

Deep-Nested code is hard to understand.

When you make changes to the code, look at it from a new perspective and look at it as a whole

Reduce nesting by early return

Can you understand the process of execution?

Don't let the code use threads, semaphores, exceptions, function pointers and anonymous functions, or virtual methods too much to make the implementation process a lot more difficult to understand.

8th Chapter Split the extra long expression

Split your extra-long expression into smaller pieces that are easier to understand

Variables used as explanations

Temporary intermediate variable

Summary variables

Using the Demogan theorem

To reverse, convert and/or

Misuse of short-circuit logic

Beware of "smart" small code ———— they tend to confuse others later.

Example: Battle with Complex logic

struct range{    int begin;    int end;    For example,[0,5) overlaps with [3,8]    bool Overlapswith (Range other);

Opposite comparison

BOOL Range::overlapswith (Range other) {    if (other.end <= begin) return false;    if (other.begin >= end) return false;    return true;}

Splitting a huge statement

Extract common parts into functions as summary variables

Another creative way to simplify expressions

Defining macros

The 9th chapter variables and readability

The more variables, the more difficult it is to keep track of their movements.

The larger the scope of the variable, the longer it needs to be tracked.

The more frequently a variable changes, the more difficult it is to track its current value

Reduce variables

Temporary variable with no value

Reduce intermediate results

Reduce control Flow variables

Narrowing the scope of a variable

Make your variables visible to as few lines of code as possible.

A variable that writes only once is better

The more places you manipulate a variable, the harder it is to determine its current value.

The last example

Part Three reorganize the code

Greater changes to the code at the function level

The 10th chapter extracts irrelevant sub-problems

Look at a function or block of code and ask yourself: What is the high-level goal of this code?

For each line of code, ask: does it work directly for the goal? What is the high-level goal of this code?

If sufficient functions are in the solution of unrelated sub-problems, extract the code into a separate function.

Separate generic code from project-specific code

An introductory example: Findclosestlocation ()

Pure Tool Code

Miscellaneous Multi-purpose code

The child code calls itself one after the other to improve it easier

Create a large number of common code

The generic code is good because "it's completely decoupled from the rest of the project"

Project-specific features

Simplifying an existing interface

You never have to be comfortable with an undesirable interface.

Reshaping interfaces On Demand

Overkill

Do not divide too thin, multiple small functions for readability disadvantage

The 11th chapter is one thing at a time.

You should organize your code once to make one thing.

The task can be very small

Examples of voting

Extracting values from an object

A larger example

The 12th chapter turns ideas into code

If you can't explain something to your grandmother, it means you haven't really understood it yet.

To clearly describe the logic

Describe logic in natural language

Understanding function Libraries is helpful

Part of the job of writing refining code is to understand what your library provides.

Apply this method to a larger problem

Natural language description logic, appropriate recursive call itself

13th chapter Less Code

The best code to read is no code.

Don't bother to implement that function ———— you don't need it.

Questioning and splitting your needs

Keep Small code base

Make your codebase smaller, the lighter the better

Remove the useless code

Familiar with the library around you

Spend 15 minutes every other time reading the names of all functions/modules/types in the standard library

In a mature library, each line of code represents a lot of design, debugging, rewriting, documentation, optimization, and testing.

Example: Using UNIX tools rather than writing code

Avoid writing new code by using the following methods:

. Eliminate unnecessary functionality from your project and do not overdo it.

. Reconsider the requirements, solve the simplest version of the problem, as long as you can complete the work.

. Constantly read through the entire API of the standard library to keep them familiar.

Part IV Featured Topics

14th Chapter Test and readability

Make testing easy to read and maintain

The test should be readable so that other programmers can comfortably change or increase the test

What's wrong with this test?

Make this test more readable

To hide unimportant details from the user so that more important details will be more prominent

Create a minimal test declaration

The basic content of most tests can be refined to "expect such behavior/output for such input/output scenarios"

Implementing a customized "micro-language"

Make error messages readable

Understanding libraries that display errors

Manually create error messages

The more helpful the error message should be, the better.

Select a good test input

The basic principle is that you should choose the simplest set of inputs that can be used to fully use the code under test

A better test value for simple and complete work

Multiple tests of a feature

Name the test function

Test_ _ ()

What's wrong with that test?

A better way to develop the test

You will begin to write the code easy to test!

Go too far.

. Sacrificing the readability of real code just to enable testing. Fascinated by the 100% test coverage. Making testing a hindrance to product development

The 15th chapter designs and improves the "minute/hour counter"

Problem

Track how many bytes the Web server has transmitted over the past minute and one hours.

Defining class Interfaces

Try 1: a naïve scheme

Try 2: Belt Design Solution

Try 3: Time Bucket design scheme

Compare three different scenarios

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