Programming Tips For Developers
A Set of 7 Tips For Beginners
What should you consider when coding for a project?
1. Code every day.
“Practice makes a man perfect”
Practicing coding day by day will eliminate the fear of coding. It helps to improve our coding skills and build confidence step by step. Do not get demotivated at the initial stages.
During the initial stages of coding, it takes more time to implement a function, takes many days to solve an error. It is totally fine. Every developer faced the same issue at the beginning, therefore you are not the first person to face this problem, and get stressed. Everything will be ok when you start coding continuously.
When you start coding, you identify the mistakes and solve the problem by searching through the internet. You try to resolve the errors by yourself. When the problem is not solved, you can get help from other developers or colleagues.
There are many resources to get help through the internet. The most popular one is Stack Overflow.
Tip:1 How to use Stack Overflow?
Once logged in to the Stack Overflow account you can submit your doubts or errors. Make sure not to submit the problems which are already there in the Stack Overflow. If you are interested in answering others' questions with the experience you get from learning, it is also possible. If you get votes for your questions or answers, then points will be added to your account. Badges are given according to the points you get.
2. DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself)
Avoid duplications when coding. It helps to keep the code simple, and easy to refer to. Use separate files for CSS, and JavaScript codes to avoid the messy in the program.
Example:
Let us assume you are adding color to the text input field using CSS. It is better to create a separate file with a .css extension, and implement that particular code snippet, and allow the relevant text field to get the code snippet by using a class name.
3. The code has to be indented.
Proper indentation should be followed through the code. It will improve the readability of the code. The programmers who are referring to the code should be able to identify the elements quickly (To make it human readable by identifying the program structure).
Example:
Tip 2: Prettier is an extension in VS Code that helps to intend the codes.
4. Use comments
When writing certain functionalities or implementing a code snippet, adding comments is required. The main reason behind commenting is to improve the understandability of the code. The comments denote which section depicts the relevant information.
Example: In a company, we may join in the middle of the project as a new software developer. To understand what has been done in the project, the comments will be more useful.
Example:
Line comments and block comments are available in HTML
5. Use proper naming conventions for files and folders
The files which are used in the project should be named meaningfully.
Example:
Let us assume that you are implementing a project for Conference Management System, there can be many roles as admin, editor, reviewer, and end-user with different functions. To make the structure more understandable and find the functionalities separately relevant to each user, make the folder structure with files relevant to each user within the relevant folder name.
6. Use meaningful names for variables.
When naming a variable do not just mention a, b, and c. Provide a name that is easy to identify and understand the process.
Example:
Let us assume there is a form with name, school, and score. When the details are entered and press the submit button should give an alert message. Unfortunately, when the user forgot to enter the marks and tries to submit the form an alert message should be shown to fill the missing space. So a JavaScript function can be written with the mentioned variables to pop up an alert when the requirement is not fulfilled.
7. Learn new technologies.
Initially, you can learn C, C++, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, PHP. Once you get improved with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript other technologies can be learned quickly.
Always try to self-learn. There are ample resources on the internet. Always try to concentrate on the topic and learn it.
Tip 3: Keep learning through w3school, Solo Learn, Udemy.
Conclusion
Once you learned the basics try to implement them in real-world scenarios. Try to implement an application, deploy the application in the cloud, and improve knowledge by contributing to open source projects.
Don’t forget to follow The Lean Programmer Publication for more such articles, and subscribe to our newsletter tinyletter.com/TheLeanProgrammer
