Ruby On Rails coding conventions, standards

and best practices

David PaluyAugust 2012

Philosophy (from Rails)

● DRY – Don't Repeat Yourself

● Convention over Configuration

● YAGNI - You ain't gonna need it

Source code Style

● Two spaces, no tabs● Boolean tests:

don't use “and” and “or”, always use “&&” and “| |”

Go Easy on the Comments

● If it's obvious – don't explain it● Remove old commented code● “How to” comments

Camels for Classes, Snakes Everywhere Else

● “Snake case”: lowercasse_words_separated_by_underscore

● “Camel case”: ClassName goodClass_name bad

● Constants: (my own preference)ALL_UPPERCASE = true

Parentheses (Optional)

Parentheses (Do & Don't)

Folding Up Lines

Folding Up Blocks

if vs unless

while vs until

Use Modifier Forms

each, NOT for

In the Wild

Use Symbols to Stand for Something

Composing Methods for Humans

Make the code a little more articulate

Readable Code

Readable code makes your classes easier to test

Git

the diff says what you did;

your commit message should tell me why you did this

Summary

Good code is like a good joke:

It needs no explanation

Credentials