Habits of highly ineffective programmers
Good and bad habits are part of human beings, and programmers are not excluded from this. It’s pretty common to have some inadequate habits when it comes to programming, for that, it’s important to break those habits in order to make great codes and create great things.
At Daniel Apps, amazing products are created, effectiveness is one of our strengths and it’s all thanks to breaking bad habits, here are a few that you should stay away from.
- Not checking your code twice
The most common bad habit is writing your code and not double or triple checking it. Whether we are too confident or too lazy, not checking it can make us not notice small issues that can ruin our code’s performance. The syntax in the code is essential, missing a letter or an important sign will make the code not run in the browser as you want. Even the smallest errors can affect our work.
Take your time to read and test your code, this will prevent you from finding bugs over and over and also to improve your functionalities when you realize your code’s errors.
Also, it’s recommended to check it while you’re still writing it, and not at the end. One small error can cause a huge one if it’s not fixed when it should, and it’s way easier to trace a bug when you’re working on a chunk of code than when you have to check the whole writing.
2. Writing unclear variable names
There are three fundamental ideas to keep in mind when naming variables:
First, the variable name must describe the information represented by the variable. A variable name should tell you specifically in words what the variable stands for.
Second, your code will be read more times than it is written. Prioritize how easy your code is to understand rather than how quickly it is written.
Third and last, adopt standard conventions for naming so you can make one global decision instead of multiple local decisions. (Koehrsen, Will. 2019)
Some programmers tend to use abbreviations that may give a vague meaning to the variable, or use different names for the same function. Avoid doing this in order to get readability. Prioritize read time and understanding instead of write time with unclear variables.
3. Not planning
Working on a new project is exciting. The moment you start, several ideas come to your mind, and you just want to take them all because at first sight they all seem pretty good. However, one bad habit programmers can have is start coding without doing any structured planification and organization of what is going to be done.
This habit can lead you to lose sight of what you want to achieve. That’s why it’s important not only to plan our deadlines and specific tasks, but also think about your goals and your client needs. This will definitely avoid you losing time in re-structuring your development because of lack of planification.
4. Not updating knowledge
For programmers, it is really important and necessary to learn and get to know the latest trends in technology and modern needs, but some of them acquire the habit of just working with what they already know and this just stops you from growing professionally speaking.
Join a community, subscribe to a newsletter, take courses, keep your mind open to new trends and fresh knowledge.
Changing habits is not an easy job, but once you realize these habits reduce your effectiveness and even alter your work performance, you’ll see why it’s so important to get rid of them.
Break those bad habits with Daniel Apps, visit our website http://danielapps.co/ and follow our Instagram @danielappsco and Facebook Daniel Apps.
