Part 6 - Building Robust Enterprise Systems: An Introduction to Essential Technologies ( Code Formatting Tools - The Polishers of Programming)
Written by : Sanjay Purohit
After having covered a vast array of topics in our series 'Building Robust Enterprise Systems: An Introduction to Essential Technologies', we realize the importance of another crucial aspect that often gets overlooked, but plays a significant role in the overall quality and maintainability of software projects - Code Formatting Tools.
What is Code Formatting Tools ?
As a developer, you might be able to relate to the fact that while coding, you're not just writing instructions for the machine to follow. Code is also communication - with your future self, with your co-workers, and with any other person who may interact with your code in the future. Therefore, maintaining a clean and consistent coding style is of utmost importance
Code formatting tools, often known as "linters," are designed to analyze your code and flag any stylistic errors, deviations from the established guidelines, and sometimes even functional issues. Let's take a look at some of the most popular code formatting tools across different programming languages:
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PrettierAn opinionated JavaScript formatter that enforces consistency in your project by reformatting your code to a predefined style.
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Black
Known as the uncompromising Python code formatter, Black takes control over minutiae of hand-formatting, freeing you to focus on more important matters.
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ESLint
A widely adopted linter tool for JavaScript and JSX that identifies and reports on patterns found in ECMAScript/JavaScript code.
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Stylelint
A powerful modern linter that helps you enforce code style conventions and avoid errors in your stylesheets.
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RuboCop
A Ruby-centric static code analyzer and formatter that enforces many of the guidelines outlined in the community Ruby Style Guide.
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PHP_CodeSniffer
A collection of scripts that analyze your PHP, JavaScript, and CSS code to detect violations of a defined set of coding standards.
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Checkstyle
A tool that helps ensure that your Java code adheres to a set of coding standards and conventions.
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Pep8
A tool to check your Python code against some of the style conventions outlined in PEP 8, the style guide for Python code.
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JSLint
A JavaScript program that flags suspicious constructs, often used in the automated build processes of JavaScript projects.
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Flake8
A Python tool that glues together pycodestyle, pyflakes, and McCabe script, providing your project with style guide enforcement, error detection, and complexity computation.
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StandardJS
An easy-to-use JavaScript standard style linter and formatter that catches style issues or programmer errors before they cause problems.
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SwiftLint
A tool by Realm to enforce Swift style and conventions, loosely based on GitHub's Swift Style Guide. It hooks into Clang and SourceKit to use the AST representation of your source files for more accurate results.
These tools can be easily integrated into your development workflow, many IDEs support these tools natively, or they can be added using plugins. This means that you can catch and fix issues before they're even committed, resulting in cleaner code and fewer back-and-forths in code review.
In our next part, we will dive deeper into another crucial aspect of building robust enterprise systems. Stay tuned
