• neatly laid-out code (indentation, line length, etc)
• informative variable names
• inline documentation/comments

When we work in coding teams we tend to hammer this into people. Most software projects have a “house style” of some sort, to which all contributors are expected to adhere. Newcomers sometimes take some convincing, but most get there in the end.

We usually say that we have coding standards and style guides because it improves code quality, or makes the software easier to maintain. That’s certainly true. But it occurred to me a while ago that coding standards are also a matter of etiquette.

By conforming to a coding standard, we smooth our interactions with the rest of the team.

That one guy who always uses tab characters, or names his variables LikeThis instead of like_this, isn’t just making the code worse; he’s driving everyone else nuts with his rudeness.