Who should you write code for? 🤔
What is code? By definition, it's a set of instructions for a machine to interpret.
As a developer, I don't agree with that definition. I don't write code for machines, I write code for people.
That has been the focus of my content this week. I started off with my response to this week's #DevDiscuss topic of common fallacies in the software industry:
One group of people that I write code for is end users — anyone that is using the actual product. My code may look organized and work as intended, but if the person actually using the product doesn't have a positive user experience then what's the point?
The second group is for other developers — anyone that may be interacting with the actual code that I write. My code needs to be readable for anyone else to be able to help the end user.
How do you write readable code?
I published an article recently that answers this question. It provides helpful suggestions that you can apply to your code right now 👇
📝 Read "Writing code for your future self"
If you're curious about the title, it's because I don't believe that clean code is just for team projects. Even as a solo developer, you can come back to your own code a year later and be struggling to understand what is going on.
Friendly reminder: I also publish on DEV and Medium if you'd like to follow there.
Suggested reading
Here are some of my favorite articles from the week.
- Even The Guardian is writing on how Code readability matters.
- Uli Troyo wrote a great piece titled Why Everyone Is Fighting About CSS/UX and JS which explains all the commotion that has been happening on the frontend development community.
- Kartik Malik created a nice list of Tools for writing better code.
😁 Hope you enjoyed this issue of the newsletter. Let me know if you have other suggestions for writing readable code. Otherwise, see you next Sunday!