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When Does Code Need to be Legible?
When Does Code Need to be Legible?
In this course, you will be coding in languages such SQL and Java; and you will be coding in homeworks, exams, and even the discussion board. All of this code must be legible, which we define as "is a skilled user able to understand the logic just by reading it?". Notably: legible code does not require automatic style formatters, compilers, or output from unittests to be understood.
All of your code is reviewed by a human being such as your professor or TA. Please write your code for them, not for a machine like a compiler or an autograder.
What Does "Legible" Mean?
What Does "Legible" Mean?
We do not grade on compliance with a specific style guide. Instead, we only ask that the code you write can be understood by a skilled human; in other words, that it's "legible".
Legibility is usually a lower bar than a specific style guide. For example, in SQL "legibility" typically means:
SQL-reserved keywords are in all-caps (eg, SELECT, AND, AVG, etc)
Relation names are in title-case (eg, Movies, instead of MOVIES or movies)
Attributes are in lower case
If on a new line, multiple AND/OR statements are indented
If on a new line, subqueries are indented
Newlines added wherever they aid comprehensibility, and definitely when the query exceeds 80 columns in width
However, if our definition of "legible" is too amorphous, then we recommend (but do not require) the following style guides:
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