Programming principles

Who is programmer?

Comparison of Coding and Programming

Definition	Translation of natural language into machine commands through an intermediary coding language	The process of development of fully functioning software solution
Skills	As a coder, you need to know the syntax of the programming language	As a programmer, you need high-level thinking and analytical skills apart from coding skills.
Tools	A text editor would suffice	Analysis tools, modeling programs, code generators, testing frameworks
Outcome	Simple solution or a small part of a project	Full ready-to-use application

The Difference between Coding and Programming are explained in the below-mentioned points: Definition: Coding is the process of translating and writing codes from one language to another (to special machine commands). Programming is the process of building an executable program (fully functional software solution). Skills: The machine can’t interact with human communications and it only understands the machine code which is the binary language. So, the main work of a coder is to translate the requirements into machine understandable language using specific syntax of some language. Programmers use to analyze and conceptualize different aspects of any program and also solutions to any problems that may or may not occur due to the process. Tools: In the case of coding, one just has to deal with the codes and know some text editors or IDEs. On the other hand, programming includes some analysis tools, modeling programs, special frameworks for creating code and testing it. Outcome: Coding can be defined as a subset of the Programming approach whereas Programming can be defined as a superset of Coding.

KISS

keep it short and simple

Nobody in programming loves to debug, maintain or make changes in complex code. KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than making it complex. So when you are writing code your solution should not be complicated that takes a lot of time and effort to understand. If your code is simple then other developers won’t face any problem understanding the code logic. As you can see in picture: if there is a simple way to solve a problem or find a solution for some task, just do it. So KISS means: "keep it short and simple" or "keep it simple and straightforward". In the wise words of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

DRY

don’t repeat yourself

Duplication of data, logic or function in code not only makes your code lengthy but also wastes a lot of time when it comes to maintain, debug or modify the code. If you need to make a small change in your code then you need to do it at several places. “Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY)” principle goal is to reduce the repetition of code. It states that a piece of code should be implemented in just one place in the source code. You can create a common function or abstract your code to avoid the repetition in your code. How to apply abstraction to write code that doesn’t repeat itself? Basically, create functions for common software patterns. It`s called higher order functions. Replace the boilerplate in your code with higher order functions. Some examples of higher order functions include: map - modifying each element in the array based on a given rule, filter — getting a subset of the array that passes a given criterion, reduce — combining everything in the array based on a given rule.

YAGNI

You Aren’t Gonna Need It

Single Responsibility Principle

Open/Closed Principle

Liskov’s Substitution Principle

Interface Segregation Principle

Interface Segregation Principle: This principle is the first principle that applies to Interfaces instead of classes in SOLID and it is similar to the single responsibility principle. It states: You should prefer many client interfaces rather than one general interface and each interface should have a specific responsibility. Suppose if you enter a restaurant and you are pure vegetarian. The waiter in that restaurant gave you the menu card which includes vegetarian items, non-vegetarian items, drinks and sweets. In this case, as a customer, you should have a menu card which includes only vegetarian items, not everything which you don’t eat in your food. Here the menu should be different for different types of customers. Using this principle helps in reducing the side effects and frequency of required changes.

Dependency Inversion Principle