Code Standards and Styles

General

1. Keep data separate from business logic as much as possible

2. Use comments everywhere in your code

   • Don't assume the next guy will understand what you are doing

3. Keep methods easy to read and understand: 🧠 Cognitive Load Developer's Handbook

   • People can only remember a few facts at a time

   • Split "heavy" IF statements into multiple variables

   • Methods should only do one thing

4. Use proper naming: PWI U: The Importance of Proper Naming in Programming

5. Never simply comment out code: either remove it entirely or add a todo comment explaining why it is commented out with instructions on when/why to uncomment it

6. Declare class constants at the beginning of the file

7. Avoid using magic numbers and strings

   • Use constants or variables to give them meaningful names

   • This article has a great explanation of why magic numbers are bad and how to avoid them

C#

1. Include XML documentation for all the following:

   • Public methods and properties

   • Extension methods

   • Global properties

2. Use public properties instead of public fields (see Encapsulation)

3. Use the default naming conventions and formatting set up in Rider

   • for existing projects, make sure that Rider is set to auto-detect naming styles

4. Resolve all IDE warnings in Rider

JavaScript

Use Google's style guide for JavaScript, except for hard line wraps at 100 characters instead of the standard 80.

Dart

Use Effective Dart as a style guide.

Additional standards for Dart and Flutter development are outlined in our Flutter Development Standards article.