Good
Programming Practices
· Clarity of expression: Never sacrifice clarity of expression for
cleverness of expression. Never sacrifice clarity of expression for minor reductions
in machine execution time. Avoid confusing programming tricks. Always strive for simplicity
and clarity.
· Names: Pick good mnemonic names for all variables. Pick good
mnemonic names for all procedures and functions. Use standardized prefixes and
suffixes for related variables. Assign names to scalar constants where it will help clarify
the readability. Do not make up cryptic or unclear abbreviations for variables and do not
use "cute" names that do not have mnemonic value.
· Commenting: Use prologue comments. Comment the declaration of
variables. Paragraph all modules with either comments or blank lines. Comment any statement
whose intent is not immediately obvious. Include comments from the very beginning of the
coding phase. Do not let comments get out of date with the code.
· Indentation: Do intent to highlight the nesting depth of a group
of if- statements or do-loops.
· Input
validation: Always validate input for legality and for plausibility and echo
print the input.
If an error is detected, try to capture enough information to identify the
exact cause of the error. Your goal should be to write a program that is protected against
all improper data.