Clean Code

I like my code to be elegant and efficient. The

logic should be straightforward to make it hard

for bugs to hide, the dependencies minimal to

ease maintenance, error handling complete

according to an articulated strategy, and per-

formance close to optimal so as not to tempt

people to make the code messy with unprinci-

pled optimizations. Clean code does one thing

well.

Bjarne uses the word “elegant.” That’s

quite a word!

Truth can only be found in one place: the code. Only the code can truly tell you what it does. It is the only source of truly accurate information. Therefore, though comments are sometimes necessary, we will expend significant energy to minimize them.

The ideal number of arguments for a function is
zero (niladic). Next comes one (monadic), followed
closely by two (dyadic). Three arguments (triadic)
should be avoided where possible. More than three
(polyadic) requires very special justification—and
then shouldn’t be used anyway.