15 Good Programming Habits

Home
>
Personal Technology
>
15 Good Programming Habits

15 Good Programming Habits

1. Before sitting down for coding, you must have formal or a paper-napkin design of the solution to be coded. Never start coding without any design unless the code is trivial one.

2. Good code documentation is as important as good knowledge of a programming language. Write brief logic for each major block of your code as comments in source code file itself. Its good to mention creation and modification dates of your program along-with why modification was required.

3. Maintaining versions of your program is another important task. Some present-day programming tools already have a built-in version management. Whenever you make any change to your program, they save its copy as .bak file.

My approach is to maintain 3 versions of a program. Say, I have a file program.c which is used by other project team members also. I copy this file as program.c.old as backup and make another copy as program.c.wrk where I do modifications. When modifications are successfully compiled, replace program.c with .wrk file.

You can also append a date or some explanation phrase to your program versions like program260505.c or programReadFnWrking.c .

4. If your project contains multiple source files then maintain a README file stating purpose of each source files, data files, intermediate and log files (if any). You may also mention the compilation and execution steps.

5. Ever wondered why your IF statement is not working as it should do. May be your are using single equal i.e. "=" instead of "==" in the condition check. A good approach is to write condition in reverse order. So, your condition should read something like this:

if ( 10==i) .... So, if you put single equal sign by mistake then it will be detected at compilation time only as an error.

6. While using loops and conditional statements, always first put closing braces corresponding opening braces and then write the inner statements i.e.

1) for(int i=0;i

In The News:

Yahoo! News: Top Stories

UAW to renegotiate labor terms, suspend jobs bank (AP)

AP - The United Auto Workers said Wednesday it is willing to change its contracts with U.S. automakers and accept delayed payments of billions of dollars to a union-run health care trust to do its part to help the struggling companies secure $34 billion in government loans.

Obama: Financial bailout must help homeowners, too (AP)

AP - President-elect Barack Obama signaled a clear desire Wednesday to use a significant portion of $700 billion in financial bailout funds to stanch foreclosures by helping struggling homeowners with their mortgages. "The deteriorating assets in the financial markets are rooted in the deterioration of people being able to pay their mortgages and stay in their homes," he said.

Bombs found in Mumbai train station a week later (AP)

AP - Police searching a mound of baggage abandoned amid the carnage of the attack on Mumbai's main train station found two bombs Wednesday Â— nearly a week after they were left there by gunmen Â— in a stunning new example of the botched security that has become a major issue in India since the three-day siege.

Jeb Bush's bid for Senate could clear GOP field (AP)

AP - Still popular in Florida, former Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday that he's interested in the seat Sen. Mel Martinez is giving up, and the field of possible candidates could quickly narrow to make way for the president's younger brother.

Cruise passengers describe 'cheeky' pirate attack (AP)

AP - Ordered to get inside and stay down, Oregon tourist Clyde Thornburg heard the pirates' rifle shots hit the side of the luxury cruise liner Â— "Pop! Pop! Pop!" Â— then felt the ship speed up to escape.

Police arrest aunt in Calif. shackled teen case (AP)

AP - The aunt and one-time guardian of an emaciated and shackled 17-year-old has been arrested, as police tried to determine how she knew the couple accused of holding the teen against his will for nearly a year.

Scientists ask: Is technology rewiring our brains? (AP)

AP - What does a teenage brain on Google look like? Do all those hours spent online rewire the circuitry? Could these kids even relate better to emoticons than to real people? These sound like concerns from worried parents. But they're coming from brain scientists.

Lawyers: Hudson in-law angered by wife's dating (AP)

AP - Prosecutors allege Jennifer Hudson's estranged brother-in-law killed three family members because he was angry the singer's sister was dating another man.

The one that didn't get away yields long-lost ring (AP)

AP - The one that didn't get away held an unlikely surprise for a Texas man. The blue-stoned class ring of Joe Richardson, engraved with his name, turned up inside an 8-pound bass 21 years after he lost it while fishing on Lake Sam Rayburn.

AL MVP Pedroia gets $40.5M, 6-year deal (AP)

AP - Dustin Pedroia has a Rookie of the Year award, an MVP, a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger and, of course, a World Series ring.

Obama says automakers' plan is "more serious" (Reuters)

Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama said on Wednesday struggling automakers have put forward a "more serious" restructuring proposal to Congress but withheld judgment on the plans until hearings are held.

Deepening recession fears foreshadow rate cuts (Reuters)

Reuters - Record declines in the vast U.S. and European service sectors and more bleak U.S. employment news on Wednesday sparked fear of an economic "free fall," setting up another round of deep interest rate cuts.

Rice urges Pakistan to cooperate in Mumbai probe (Reuters)

Reuters - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Pakistan on Wednesday to cooperate "fully and transparently" in investigations into the Mumbai attacks that have upset India-Pakistan relations.

All options on table as Congress reviews autos bailout (Reuters)

Reuters - All options were on the table on Wednesday as congressional committees scrutinized auto company restructuring proposals and an urgent appeal for $34 billion in aid ahead of make-or-break hearings.

Senate Democrats will pack plenty of muscle (Reuters)

Reuters - Senate Democrats will be able to do plenty over the next two years -- despite falling just short of their goal of winning a majority big enough to end Republican procedural roadblocks.

Paulson said weighing bailout's next $350 billion (Reuters)

Reuters - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is weighing whether to ask Congress for the remaining $350 billion of the financial bailout fund, with White House aides approaching President-elect Barack Obama's transition team about the idea, an Obama aide said on Wednesday.

U.S.-led coalition in Iraq dwindles as allies leave (Reuters)

Reuters - A string of departures by the U.S. military's allies in Iraq is turning into an exodus as violence subsides and the end of a U.N. mandate permitting their deployment to the country approaches.

Thai protesters lift airport siege (Reuters)

Reuters - Anti-government protesters lifted their crippling, eight-day blockade of Thailand's main airport on Wednesday, raising the hopes of 230,000 stranded tourists even though there is no end in sight to the wider political crisis.

India warns all options open with Pakistan after Mumbai attacks (AFP)

AFP - India on Wednesday warned that all options were open in dealing with Pakistan after last week's attacks on Mumbai, as the United States pressured Islamabad to show urgent cooperation with the probe.

Riot police break up Zimbabwe protests as cholera deaths mount (AFP)

AFP - Baton-wielding riot police broke up protests in Harare and detained dozens Wednesday, as the death toll of a cholera epidemic neared 600 in Zimbabwe's worsening health and economic crises.

15 Good Programming Habits

Personal Technology Personal Technology