A list of so-called 'programming sins'

Programming Sins.md

Programming Sins

• Magic numbers
  • Constants with a specific meaning should be clearly named
  • Possible exceptions include:
    • 0, 1 and 2 where usage is unambiguous
    • arguably the shift and mask values when doing bitshifting and masking
• Single-letter variables names
  • With the possible exceptions of:
    • x and y for coordinates
    • maybe i and j for loop counters
• Using contractions in variable names
  • E.g. cnt for count, idx for index
• Using + to combine bitmasks instead of |
• Mixing brace styles
• Mixing tabs and spaces for indentation
  • Using tabs for indentation and spaces for alignment is perfectly acceptable, though whether you should be aligning your code is more contentious