Standards for All

//The standards of working with all.

Standards of coding have been imposed on me ever since I started programming anything. Simple ideas such as the indentation of code blocks and spaces between operators have been universally taught ever since my first lessons in coding syntax before entering university. Throughout my classes in college, coding standards from basic conventions to rigid rules have been placed as the responsibility of the students to adhere to, and I have strived followed every single one. These coding standards are often tied to my standing in class, but I also sincerely believe that these standards are not only necessary for the convenience of the instructors but for our own sake as well.

The necessity of comprehension.

Why are these coding standards of all types and sizes imposed on us students? I can answer for our professors and teachers with confidence - they will be grading many versions of the same set of code and setting a specific standard for how all of them should look like is not only good practice but will make the process of grading significantly easier. A comparison I can see is instructors requiring essays to be submitted in a specific format - most often in .pdf form with the essay named correctly (name, class, section, and topic) so that they may be easily categorized. This is not unlike the standards we have for essays that are a part of the ICS 314 coursework - uploaded as a markdown file on GitHub, title and labels included. A comparison between coding standards and writing rubrics can also be made: coding standards are often considered to be the best way to maintain the quality of written code, and writing rubrics are guidelines on what the ideal essay should contain. We know that coding standards make our code neater for our instructors to grade, but there is also an arguably greater reason why these standards should be maintained for as long as one’s career involves coding and collaboration.

The essentials of collaboration.

As this semester moves closer and closer to the incoming final project due at the end of the course, I’ve definitely thought about the people I would like to work with and the website I would like to create. Working with a group is given - it is not permitted or recommended to solo a coming project of this scale. As this is my first time dealing with a group project involving coding, I am very excited to contribute to the performance of my future team. Although we may all come from different coding backgrounds, a common coding standard - ESLint in this case - will be a standard we can all understand to be helpful to our project as it allows us to understand each other’s contributed work more clearly. Developers in the workplace often do not work alone - many software coders frequently come together to develop an application that is worthy of being distributed to the masses, and the matter of the application’s functionality is of utmost importance. As a future team member, my responsibility to those in my group includes making sure my work is of the highest quality, so that they may see it and understand its functionality perfectly. I understand that to collaborate effectively, the team must communicate with each other in a manner that is recognizable to all, so that individual tasks are completed effectively and help may be given when needed. Therefore, let these standards guide me as I create something not only for me to see, for my group to understand, for my professors to grade, but for the world to appreciate also.

//Reading one's code may not be easy, but I will strive make it so.