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This commit adds a reference document with some best practices to help resolve disputes when writing code. Related to: containerbuildsystem#737
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# Some suggestions on how to structure your code to pass code review as fast as possible | ||
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## Background | ||
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Target audience for any piece of code is ultimately another engineer and not a | ||
computer. Thus sometimes a bit of code could be rejected by reviewers even if | ||
it was greenlit by all linters and passed the single supplied unit test. This | ||
usually happens because while potentially correct the code is hard to follow, | ||
confusing or relies on problematic techniques. When submitting a contribution | ||
to any open-source project it is worth keeping in mind that it has a potential | ||
of living in the codebase for a long, sometimes very long time, and during this | ||
time it might become necessary to examine or slightly modify it more than once. | ||
It is very worth it to invest some effort into helping future maintainers by | ||
writing clear and well documented (preferably self-documenting) code. This | ||
small guide summarizes some best known practices and conventions which cannot | ||
be caught with a linter. | ||
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> As an illustration to the above statement consider the following bit of code: | ||
> ``` | ||
> &>:1-:v v *_$.@ | ||
> ^ _$>\:^ | ||
> ``` | ||
> It is pretty hard to tell not just whether the code is correct, but even what is | ||
> supposed to do (even when one knows the language). On the other hand | ||
> ``` | ||
> factorial :: Integer -> Integer | ||
> factorial n = product [1..n] | ||
> ``` | ||
> is quite easy to comprehend without knowing much details of the underlying language. | ||
> The ultimate goal is to write boring code that is as clear and straightforward as the | ||
> second example. | ||
The main goal of a reviewer is to make maintainers and future contributors | ||
lives easier. Code reviews are done and requests for modifications are issued | ||
not to flex or to cheaply show off superiority, but to ensure that the code | ||
meets standards: is clear enough and well documented to be maintained, because | ||
it is usually up to maintainers to deal with any bugs and inconsistencies in | ||
contributed components. All reviews are done in good faith and are | ||
well-meaning, but prioritise long-term project stability. | ||
Things that work in a individually maintained codebase do not work as well in a | ||
collaborative project: code has to be clear enough for any engineer more or | ||
less familiar with the codebase in general to modify it as fast as possible. | ||
This requires a rather high level of input quality control, otherwise the | ||
codebase would quickly devolve into a bug generator which is extremely | ||
expensive to maintain in any semblance of working order. | ||
Code author is usually the most knowledgeable subject matter expert when it | ||
comes to specifics of workings and intent of their contribution. Procedures and | ||
transformations which are trivial and obvious to them are very likely not | ||
trivial and not obvious to everyone else. To ensure that the contributed code | ||
remains used and useful it is important to clearly and succinctly share this | ||
knowledge. Thus maintainers will likely ask to share all missing details or | ||
even to restructure contributed code in such a way that it becomes clear what | ||
it is doing. | ||
All stated above is especially true for security-focused projects where bugs | ||
and omissions could become very costly. The tolerances of a security project | ||
are usually much tighter than of most others since the price of failure is much | ||
greater. | ||
## Best practices | ||
### Document your decisions | ||
- Document your intent aka write good comments. Good comments are those which | ||
tell why something is done, not how. | ||
Do: | ||
```python | ||
# A bug in foobar v2.0.1-v2.5.4 results in a silent failure to bazquux. | ||
# The check below is a workaround to prevent this. | ||
if did_fail(bazquux): | ||
... | ||
``` | ||
Don't do: | ||
```python | ||
x += 1 # Incrementing x. | ||
``` | ||
- Do not hesitate adding | ||
[doctests](https://docs.python.org/3/library/doctest.html) when it makes | ||
sense to do so! | ||
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- When basing yor code off of some existing work please add a comment with a | ||
link to it. | ||
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- When contributing regular expressions please provide comments. Either as | ||
[inline comments](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#re.VERBOSE) or as | ||
[group names](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#re.Match.groupdict). | ||
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### Write easy to follow code | ||
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- Try avoiding extremely long lines in any direction. Horizontal lines longer | ||
than 120 symbols are as hard to deal with as a narrow 20+ lines columns of | ||
arguments to a single function. | ||
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- Consider variable names which reflect intended use and potentially types of | ||
objects they will be bound with. | ||
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- While doing the above remember, that vowel shortage is over, so in most | ||
cases it is ok to use vowels in variable names, a sligthly longer name won't | ||
be a problem and will help you readers a lot. | ||
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- The opposite of a too-short name is a too-long name, so please try not | ||
packing everything known about an object into a name. Names longer than ~30 symbols | ||
are rather hard to deal with (at least for those who don't speak | ||
[German](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizit%C3%A4tenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft) | ||
natively). | ||
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- Very short (even with just one symbol) names are fine in narrow scopes like | ||
`for` loops spanning a few lines or list comprehensions. | ||
```[director_name(m) for m in most_popular_movies]``` | ||
is a bit easier on a reader than | ||
```[director_name(popular_movie) for popular_movie in most_popular_movies]``` | ||
They are rarely a good idea elsewhere. | ||
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- Consider using plural form of an individual entity name for naming | ||
homogeneous containers: `names` is a very well fitting name for an object of | ||
type `list[Name]`. | ||
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- Respect continuity. If an argument is named `foo` in a definition of `bar` | ||
then it helps future reader if in a calling scope a variable that was to be | ||
passed to `bar` was also called `foo`. | ||
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- Split your functions and methods. Helper functions defined either on module | ||
level or even dynamically within a code object that uses them will make the | ||
actual code so much easier to follow. Do this if: | ||
- Your function is clearly doing several things in sequence (each one | ||
deserves a helper); | ||
- Your function is longer than about 30 lines; | ||
- Your function has many levels of nesting; | ||
- You feel the need to write a brief comment explaining what the next code | ||
block is for; | ||
A good function is a boring sequence of statements with little to no | ||
branching which tells a story of simple transformations of arguments into | ||
output. | ||
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- Avoid list comprehensions that span more than one line. This is usually a | ||
sign to either fall back to a for loop or to add some intermediate | ||
abstractions. | ||
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- Aliases are cheap and can make code look much simpler when properly named. | ||
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- Type aliases can make a huge difference for a reader: | ||
``` | ||
RawBarJSON = type(dict[str, Any]) | ||
def foo(bars: list[RawBarJSON]) | ||
``` | ||
vs | ||
``` | ||
def foo(bars: list[dict[str, Any]]) | ||
``` | ||
Please use them. They also act as a form of documentation. | ||
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- Strive for declarative code: what the code does is often of greater interest | ||
than how it does it. Having a rich set of aliases and helper functions | ||
greatly helps with this. | ||
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- Try to avoid reinventing the wheel. Python has a rich collection of built-in | ||
components with well-known behavior, which allows one to write concise and | ||
idiomatic code. It usually pays off to check if `collections`, `itertools` or | ||
`functools` contain something that could be reused. | ||
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- When possible and practical implement | ||
[dunder methods](https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html#basic-customization) | ||
for you classes. | ||
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- When defining a base class consider making it abstract, this would | ||
disambiguate the intent. While there is some room for doubt with | ||
`NotImplementedError` (maybe it would be just fine if I have implemented it | ||
right here?) there is no doubt with `@abc.abstractmethod`. | ||
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### Favor styles which are easier to reason about | ||
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- When possible prefer immutable objects, especially when defining containers | ||
with constants. Use `frozenset` when there are no plans to extend it, use | ||
tuples instead of lists for static data. | ||
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- When possible prefer building new, modified container objects from | ||
old ones to modifying existing container objects in place. A function that | ||
takes an argument and constructs a return value basing on it is easier to | ||
reason about than a function that modifies its argument. | ||
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- Refresh recommendations from [PEP8](https://peps.python.org/pep-0008) | ||
and [PEP20](https://peps.python.org/pep-0020); | ||
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### Write clear tests which actually test functionality | ||
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When writing tests remember, that tests look like code, but have a very | ||
different nature. | ||
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- Unlike for code it is ok for a test case to mostly repeat some other test. | ||
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- Unlike in actual code there could be too much abstraction in tests. If | ||
understanding what and how exactly is being tested requires jumping through | ||
several modules chances are the test case is overly abstracted; | ||
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- There is no limit on test names, it also makes a lot of sense to have | ||
longer, more descriptive names for test cases. Consider | ||
```def test_foo()``` | ||
vs | ||
```def test_foo_can_be_created_from_any_standard_source()``` | ||
A failure report in the first case tells a user that a test has just failed, | ||
in the second case it also narrows down the scope of what could have gone | ||
wrong. | ||
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- Prefer Arrange-Act-Assert pattern when possible. | ||
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- Try not to overload individual assertion statements with constructor | ||
statements, especially with ones that span multiple lines. Remember, aliases | ||
are cheap! | ||
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- Consider adding some meaningful message to `assert` statements. | ||
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- Please avoid extending existing test cases when providing new functionality. | ||
If you find that some existing test is mostly fit for the task do not | ||
hesitate to copy it over, name it unambiguously and make necessary | ||
modifications to the code. | ||
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- Adding a new test parameters group, on the other hand, is a great idea! | ||
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- Consider adding a comment outlining what the test is about to do on higher | ||
level when the test is complex. | ||
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## FAQ | ||
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**Q** Is this guide exhaustive? | ||
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**A** No, but we are working on it. At the moment of writing it covers the most | ||
frequent patterns. | ||
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**Q** Is it correct in 100% of cases? Must this guide be obeyed blindly and | ||
without a thought? | ||
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**A** No. While this guide will likely be correct in most cases, always remember | ||
to use your best judgement. When breaking with these recommendations remember | ||
to follow this guide's suggestions on documenting your intent. The guide is a | ||
result of distillation of experience of multiple people across wide range of | ||
projects. The estimate is that the recommendations won't hold once in a rare | ||
while, but not too often. Frequent and far departures from the guide might | ||
indicate misunderstanding of its major points. | ||
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**Q** What about efficiency? Won't all these suggestions degrade efficiency of my code? | ||
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**A** Python is designed to be easy to write and comprehend, but not to be especially | ||
efficient. In other words it trades some CPU time for developer's time. While | ||
this does not justify the use of O(n^4) algorithm when an O(n) one suffices, | ||
it does justify introducing additional abstractions and intermediate objects | ||
to make code easier to comprehend and maintain. Furthermore, any discussion | ||
of efficiency must be based on data, either experimental or back-of-a-napkin | ||
estimate based on actual data about at least one of input dimensions. | ||
Another reasonably accurate and fast empirical way to answering a question | ||
"Does this need to be optimised?" could be obtained by instead answering "Do | ||
I want to reimplement my code as a C extension?". Sometimes more optimized | ||
code is desirable. In a case when optimization is warranted please do not | ||
forget extensively commenting the optimized code. (Especially the optimized | ||
code since it often tends to be more obscure.) | ||
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**Q** I have just found a counterexample to the guide in this same codebase! Hypocrisy! | ||
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**A** Thank you for reporting it! The codebase evolves and best practices | ||
evolve too, sometimes changes do not happen simultaneously. Please file | ||
either an issue to track the discrepancy or a PR to make the codebase more | ||
conformant, any will be greatly appreciated! | ||
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**Q** I disagree with this document, what should I do? | ||
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**A** Please submit a PR! A _well-argumented_ change to best practices is | ||
a great contribution for which maintainers will be very grateful! |