Words of Wisdom from Senior Developers
There is no such thing as perfect code. Have you ever been hung up on trying to make your code as perfect as possible?
It is one thing to write reusable and legible code, which I do recommend, but it is another thing to write perfect code ( I don’t know if that even exists ). You are never going to write an application perfectly from start to finish on your first pass. Somewhere, someone on a Windows machine will pull up your product on IE7 and it won’t look or function right. We have all been there.
Ask for help
If you don’t know something and have done the 15–20-minute search on Google and Stack Overflow, go ahead and ask another developer. Most likely they have faced this same issue or something similar.
Good design and consistent CSS will set your work apart
A designer wants to have confidence when they hand you a design comp, not be questioning your ability to recreate their work. You don’t want to be known as the developer that does just enough and calls it done. Yes, we have all been there late at night when we finish a task and notice something just isn’t quite right about it, and think we will just get to it in the morning. Right then and there we either need to fix it or make a note IN YOUR CODE to fix it in the morning. When we say we will get back to it, we most likely will forget.
Look for patterns in design
Looking for patterns in designs will give you the ability to write better CSS without repetition, and we all know how awesome that sounds. This gives you the power to create reusable CSS that you can take from project to project.
Look for patterns in code
When building applications it is important to look for patterns in the applications functionality. This will help guide you in writing non redundant code. You will be surprised at how modular your code will become. This will help future developers jump into the project easier and become familiar with it faster.
Logic first, Styles second
It is important to build out functionality first and to style the components second. Most projects have a timeline and usually a rather short one which is why this advice is so important. You want to make sure your logic is correct because usually, that is what takes the most time. You can then go back in and add all the styles.
Happy coding! Don’t forget, none us really know what we are doing, but we are willing to put in the effort to get the job done..
