In this blog post, we will look at the need for a standard coding style to improve readability and collaboration efficiency in the age of popularized programming, as well as its pros and cons.
With the recent development of IT technology, interest in the IT field has increased, and more people are looking to learn programming. Nowadays, anyone can create their own program, even if they lack expertise, if they buy a book and study on their own or take classes for a few months at a programming academy. This is thanks to the development of various tools that make programming more accessible. For example, Google provides the Android SDK (Software Development Kit) free of charge, which allows the development of programs that run on the Android operating system. These tools provide convenience and help even those with little technical knowledge to easily program.
However, the fact that anyone can easily program is not necessarily a good thing. The popularization of programming has led to several problems, one of which is the difficulty of reading program codes written in different coding styles. Coding style is a concept similar to writing style in writing. Writing seems to be understandable as long as the grammar is correct, but writers use a style that is appropriate for the purpose of the text to make it easier for the reader to understand. For example, an editorial requires a concise and clear style rather than fancy expressions, and the same is true for coding. If the grammar is correct, the program will work, but if the appropriate coding style is added, the code will be easy to read. On the other hand, if the coding style is not appropriate, the code will be difficult to understand.
As the scale of the program grows, multiple people work together to develop it, so programmers must consider readability so that others can easily read and understand their code. However, non-experts with little programming experience have difficulty writing code that is highly readable. This is because people who learn programming through short-term learning focus on creating “programs that work,” but do not learn how to write “easy-to-read code.” Code that is not easy to read not only makes it difficult to collaborate, but can also cause problems when the code is modified later.
To solve this problem, it is necessary to come up with a way to enable beginners to write code that is easy to read. To this end, I propose the introduction of a standard coding style. A standard coding style is a regulation that requires programmers to abandon their individual styles and follow a set standard. Most programming languages have no restrictions on coding style as long as the grammar is correct, but standardizing coding style can help understand the code and reduce readability issues.
Of course, there may be objections to the proposal to establish a standard coding style. Since each person has a different preferred coding style, a standard style may be perceived as an inconvenient constraint by some programmers. It can be difficult and time-consuming to code according to a set style rather than your own style. I have actually experienced this difficulty myself. Last June, I worked as a scoring assistant for the Korea Information Olympiad and wrote the code to provide to students as a model answer. I tried to follow the style of last year’s model answer so that students could easily understand it, but because I was following an unfamiliar style, the task that would have taken an hour took more than two hours.
While a standard coding style may reduce work efficiency, we believe it will have a positive effect in many ways.
First, a standard coding style is efficient in terms of long-term maintenance of programs. Companies continuously upgrade their programs after release, fixing bugs and adding additional features. In this process, programmers are often replaced, so it is necessary to have code that is easy to read so that new programmers can easily understand existing code. By introducing a standard coding style, programmers will have less to worry about individually to improve readability, and the code will be easier to read thanks to the established style.
In fact, some companies have their own coding style for maintenance efficiency and require all programmers to follow it. When I visited Google Korea five years ago, Google emphasized that all programmers must follow the coding style set by the company. On the other hand, a friend of mine who works for a game company says that there is no set coding style.
Second, in the current trend where open source projects are in the limelight, a standard coding style will be of great help to programmers. Open source is not only accessible to professional programmers but also to non-professionals, and the code is open to allow various users to improve the functionality of the program and fix any inconveniences. Due to the nature of open source, where various people participate, codes written in different styles may be mixed together, making it difficult to understand the code. I also often use open source code related to computer graphics, and I have experienced difficulty reading code due to the variety of coding styles. If there were a standard coding style, this inconvenience could have been avoided.
Third, a standardized coding style can also increase efficiency in terms of programming education. This also reduces the burden on educators. When I was an instructor at a programming school, I spent a lot of time reading the code written by students and fixing problems. Students tend to write code that works rather than code that is easy to read, so it was difficult to find bugs in code that was difficult to read, which was time-consuming, effort-consuming, and stressful. These difficulties would have been reduced if students had written code in a standard style. The Department of Computer Science at Seoul National University also has several courses that include readability evaluation to encourage students to write code that is highly readable. As such, a standard coding style would be beneficial for both educators and students.
From the student’s point of view, a standardized coding style can reduce confusion and increase motivation to learn. Each book or online course on programming has a different style, and some even teach in the wrong style. From the perspective of the student, it is difficult to determine whether a style is correct or not, and if you learn as you go, you may become a programmer who cannot write readable code. If there is a standard style, this problem will not occur.
So far, we have discussed the positive effects that a standard coding style can bring, but we must also consider the feasibility of standardization. On the other hand, the mathematical model of programming languages can make it difficult for computers to process not only grammar but also coding styles. In addition, there are difficulties in converting existing codes written in various styles to conform to the standard, and there is also controversy over which style to adopt as the standard.
It is difficult to find a positive answer to these feasibility issues, but the possibilities are gradually increasing as research progresses. For example, Python is making efforts to regulate its coding style by adding a grammar condition called the Indentation rule.
In summary, standardizing coding styles has a positive impact on maintenance, open source activation, and education. Computer science majors and non-majors, as well as those interested in programming, need to make an effort to write code that is highly readable. This is difficult in the current situation where there is no standard style, but for this reason, I believe that standard coding styles are essential.
