Discussion on: Writing Clean Code

[Carlos.js]

I agree with Marco, even we can do more functions:

function canView($scope, $ownerId) {
  return (hasScope('public') || isAdmin() || (hasScope('private') && isOwner($ownerId));
}

That way is easy to read. Obviously, that can be refactored.

[Jason McCreary]

I'll explore this in a future post.

As a tangent, I never understood developers need to wrap the entire compound condition in parenthesis.

[Jodi Winters]

I'd agree with carlos.js' solution, albeit each of the conditions being on separate lines. This supports the functions being just return statements, and giving clearer meaning (context) to the conditions you're checking. Also, it completely eliminates the branch logic in a function designed purely for information, a good nod to readable code.
The wrapping parenthesis must be a typo as there's no corresponding closing outer parenthesis. But that is an example of why you shouldn't wrap the condition in parentheses. There is another issue with Carlos.js' example, $scope is no longer used which means this must be a function in a class which means all those nice function calls are missing $this->

[Joe Gaudet]

100% agree that conditional returns of booleans is a smell, generally one of the first things I look for in code review.