Friday evening with the bug. What a scary dream.
No, it's not a dream. It can happen. In fact, it happens so often that you start wondering about yourself and your team's skills.
How can you minimise the bug, by the way?
I have devised a framework to rescue you—the CLEAN Framework for Clean Code.
C → Consistency is the king.
Make your code consistent. What that means, if you asked?
When you start solving the bug, you see the variable names x, y, and z. You are wondering what the hell those are. You trace back all the places it is used and come to know that it is for updating the name, address and email variable. Now, you are cursing yourself as to why you have used x, y, and z instead of a racial variable name to waste your precious Friday evening on a unavoidable bug.
So, what to do?
In my way, follow a style guide. Like Airbnb or Google does. I prefer Airbnb.
Airbnb Style Guide - https://github.com/airbnb/javascript
Google Style Guide - https://google.github.io/styleguide/jsguide.html
L → Lean Functions and Modules
Break it down now, y'all!
Wondering what and why I'm suggesting to breaking things up?
Well, Cool down. I'm not saying to break the keyboard in front of you. I suggest breaking down the more extended functions you wrote, which are now difficult to read and understand what's going on. Break it down so that each function does and does one thing well—like a helper function, helping your original function code.
Small, focused functions are the secret sauce of maintainable code.
E → Efficient Optimisation
Speed is necessary, but not at the expense of readability and bug-free code.
I know, I know. You will say, I have to complete that feature faster as the deadline is near. Now I will ask you how you gonna solve that bug with the same lightning speed you wrote the original code.
Not easy. Right?
But here is this. Start with writing your feature. Once you are done and before you push your code for review, ask yourself how you can optimise the code. Should I have used map instead of forEach? Should I have used for...of loop instead of for loop?
Optimised code is happy code, and happy code makes for happy developers.
A → Antique Code Care
Legacy codes are boring, but actually, they are viable antiques.
Someone spends a lot of time understanding the requirement and making it work. You are right; sometimes, it is not the best optimised and readable code. But now it's in your hands to make it right. If time allows, refactor it slowly and steadily. Take one step at a time to keep the original features intact.
Respect the legacy, but don't be afraid to nudge it into the future gently.
N → New Feature Adoption
There is the reason why ES6+ feature keep adding.
They are not just shiny new toys; they are the new superpower of writing cleaner and more efficient code. Arrow functions, destructuring, and template literals are the Swiss Army knife of JavaScript. And let's not forget about asynchronous programming. Promises and async/await are like traffic controllers for your code, keeping everything flowing smoothly without any pile-ups.
Modern features make your code more expressive and your life easier.
Bonus: Test, Debug, Repeat
A well-tested codebase is a happy codebase.
How do you feel when you go for a blood test and find nothing major? Yeah, the codebase can feel the same way if you imagine it. In fact, if the code is well tested, there is less chance of getting a bug on Friday evening.
Writing tests are bonus, but it is a must to have.
Remember, you've got this! You're well-equipped to tackle any JavaScript challenge with the CLEAN framework (Consistency, Lean modules, Efficient optimisation, Antique code care, and New feature adoption). Now go forth and code like the JavaScript ninja you are!
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