The Boy Scout Rule 🏕️
« Leave the campground cleaner than you found it. »
The Boy Scout Rule is a principle in software development that states whenever you are working on some code, you should take the opportunity to improve the code a little bit, leave it a little cleaner than when you found it.
Ways to Apply It
- Refactor the code to make it more readable and maintainable
- Improve comments and documentation
- Remove unused, duplicated or dead code
- Fix minor bugs and issues you notice
- Simplify conditional logic
- Improve naming and organization
- Break large methods into smaller ones
- Add missing tests
- Automate repetitive tasks
Benefits
The cumulative effect of many small code cleanups over time leads to much healthier and maintainable code. Just like how a Boy Scout aims to “leave no trace” and clean up better than they found it.
The Boy Scout Rule enables continuous improvement of legacy code. We don’t have to wait for a major rewrite or refactor to start improving things. We can start enhancing the code today, in small increments.
Sources
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