C++ Coding Standards: 101 Rules, Guidelines, and Best Practices

6. Correctness, simplicity, and clarity come first

Summary

KISS (Keep It Simple Software): Correct is better than fast. Simple is better than complex. Clear is better than cute. Safe is better than insecure (see Items 83 and 99).

Discussion

It’s hard to overstate the value of simple designs and clear code. Your code’s maintainer will thank you for making it understandable—and often that will be your future self, trying to remember what you were thinking six months ago. Hence such classic wisdom as:

Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.

—Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman

Write programs for people first, computers second.

—Steve McConnell

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