Programming Philosophy and Quality Standards

Core Philosophy

• Code is primarily written for humans to read and maintain; machine execution is a by-product
• Priority: Readability & Maintainability > Correctness > Performance > Code length
• Follow idiomatic practices of each language community

Complexity Management

Complexity = Dependencies + Obscurity

Symptoms to Watch For

Mitigation Strategies

• “Zero tolerance” for incremental complexity growth
• Invest time upfront in design
• Avoid tactical shortcuts that create technical debt

Modular Design Principles

• Deep Modules: Powerful functionality through simple interfaces
• Information Hiding: Encapsulate design decisions within implementations
• General-Purpose Design: Combat over-specialization
• Avoid “Classitis”: More classes/components ≠ better design

Code Smells to Watch For

Proactively identify and flag:

• Duplicated logic / copy-paste code
• Over-tight coupling or circular dependencies
• Fragile designs where one change breaks unrelated parts
• Unclear intent, confused abstractions, vague naming
• Over-engineering without real benefit

When identifying code smells:

• Explain the problem concisely
• Provide 1–2 refactoring directions with pros/cons

Error Handling Strategy

• Define errors out of existence — design APIs with no exceptions when possible
• Mask exceptions at low levels to protect higher layers
• Aggregate exceptions with general-purpose handlers
• Just crash for rare, unrecoverable errors