Coding Guidelines, the Gist
Post from January 13, 2016 (↻ December 5, 2021), filed under Web Development.
Coding guidelines govern how we write code.
Coding guidelines directly help consistency, and through that, indirectly, impact [code] usability, collaboration, and maintainability.
Coding guidelines are important.
The main ingredients of a coding guideline are: what (not) to do within a particular scope, examples, and an explanation.
Coding guidelines can deal with preference or with quality.
Coding guidelines can be descriptive, prescriptive, or both.
Coding guidelines must be communicated, enforced and reviewed.
And, there are some solid coding guidelines out there.
More: The Little Book of HTML/CSS Coding Guidelines (still brand new, and still free)!
About Me

I’m Jens Oliver Meiert, and I’m an engineering manager and author. I’ve worked as a technical lead for Google, I’m close to the W3C and the WHATWG, and I write and review books for O’Reilly. Other than that, I love trying things, sometimes including philosophy, art, and adventure. Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.
If you have questions or suggestions about what I write, please leave a comment (if available) or a message.
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Perhaps my most comprehensive book: The Web Development Glossary (2020). With explanations and definitions for literally thousands of terms from Web Development and related fields, building on Wikipedia as well as the MDN Web Docs. Available at Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, and Leanpub.