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Principles that Developers Should Know

January 23, 2023 • ☕️ 7 min read • 🏷 computer, software

Translated by author into: Deutsch • English • Italiano • Русский


The software development world is moving rapidly and this fast-paced environment requires developers to work on more projects. However, when developing software, adhering to certain principles is extremely important to ensure that the code is more readable, reusable, and maintainable.

Therefore, there are some commonly used principles in the software development process. In this article, we will examine the YAGNI, DRY, SOC, KISS, LOD, and SOLID principles. These principles are some of the most important principles that need to be followed during the software development process.

YAGNI

The YAGNI principle is the abbreviation of “You Ain’t Gonna Need It” or “You Aren’t Gonna Need It”. In the software development process, this principle emphasizes the importance of avoiding writing unnecessary code.

The YAGNI principle suggests focusing only on current needs rather than coding future features or functions that may be used in the future. This prevents wasting time and effort by writing unnecessary code.

This principle ensures that the code remains simple and straightforward. This makes the software more easily understandable, testable, and maintainable. In addition, writing only the necessary code instead of writing unnecessary code also improves the quality of the code.

In conclusion, the YAGNI principle is an important principle in the software development process and helps to write better and simpler code by avoiding writing unnecessary code.

DRY

DRY principle is an acronym for “Don’t Repeat Yourself.” This principle emphasizes the importance of avoiding duplicated code blocks in the software development process.

The DRY principle suggests writing a function or method instead of using the same code in multiple places, which increases the reusability of the code. This way, developers save time by not writing the same code repeatedly.

The DRY principle also improves the readability of the code. Repeated code blocks make the code harder to read and understand. When changes are necessary in the code, the duplicated code needs to be modified, which takes more time.

The DRY principle helps simplify the code and improve its quality in the software development process. However, applying this principle requires proper organization and maintaining the integrity of the code while increasing its reusability.

In conclusion, the DRY principle emphasizes the importance of avoiding duplicated code blocks in the software development process and helps simplify the code while improving its quality. This principle increases the reusability of the code, which saves time and effort in the software development process.

SOC

SOC is a principle that stands for “Separation of Concerns”. In the software development process, this principle suggests that components with different functionalities should be designed and developed independently from each other.

According to this principle, different functionalities of a software should be organized in sections related to their own concerns. Code blocks developed for a specific function of a software should only be concerned with fulfilling that function and should not affect other functions.

The SOC principle enables software to become more modular. Modular software is created by combining components with different functionalities. This way, each component is developed and tested independently from each other, making the software more reliable, readable, and sustainable.

The SOC principle also increases reusability in the software development process. A modular approach makes it easier to reuse different software components in other projects or for different functionalities.

In conclusion, the SOC principle suggests that code blocks developed for different functions of software should be designed and developed independently from each other. This principle makes software more modular, reliable, and sustainable, and increases reusability in the software development process.

KISS

KISS, which stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid” or “Keep It Short and Simple” is a principle in software development that emphasizes the need to keep a design as simple as possible.

The KISS principle helps to make software more readable, maintainable, and testable. Complex designs make it difficult to understand the code and to detect and fix errors.

The KISS principle suggests that software should be kept simple, but this does not mean sacrificing functionality or quality. On the contrary, the KISS principle recommends avoiding unnecessary complexity in order to improve functionality and quality.

Applying the KISS principle makes code more readable. Simple code allows developers to understand and modify the code more quickly. Additionally, simple code allows new developers to adapt to the project more quickly.

The KISS principle also makes software more maintainable. Complex code makes maintenance and updates more difficult, while simple code contains fewer errors and is easier to maintain.

In conclusion, the KISS principle recommends keeping software as simple as possible. This principle helps to make software more readable, maintainable, and testable. Simple code allows for quick and easy changes during the software development process and contains fewer errors.

LOD

LOD (Law of Demeter), is a principle in software development that suggests minimizing the level of dependency between objects. LOD is also known as “Least Knowledge Principle.”

The LOD principle states that a class should have as few dependencies as possible on other classes. It is recommended that a class interacts only with the classes that it is directly dependent on. Therefore, a class should not be aware of the relationships between other classes.

The main purpose of this principle is to make software more flexible and reusable. If a class is tightly coupled with other classes, making changes and ensuring reusability becomes more difficult.

The LOD principle suggests several methods for reducing the dependencies between classes in software development. These include limiting a class’s interactions with other classes, keeping the class’s knowledge limited to its own responsibilities, using intermediate layers, and using interfaces as needed.

In conclusion, the LOD principle recommends minimizing the level of dependency between classes to make software more flexible, maintainable, and reusable. This principle suggests that a class should only store information related to its own responsibilities and interact only with the classes it is directly dependent on. This results in software with fewer errors and easier maintenance.

SOLID

SOLID is an acronym for fundamental principles used in software engineering. These principles aim to make software more flexible, maintainable, easy to maintain, reusable, and extensible. They were first introduced by Robert C. Martin (a.k.a. Uncle Bob) who identified the SOLID principles.

The SOLID principles are as follows:

  • S - Single Responsibility Principle
  • O - Open/Closed Principle
  • L - Liskov Substitution Principle
  • I - Interface Segregation Principle
  • D - Dependency Inversion Principle

Let us explain these principles separately:

  1. Single Responsibility Principle: A class should have only one task or responsibility. The fact that classes have a single responsibility without being confused with other classes with different responsibilities makes the code more readable, understandable and maintainable.
  2. Open/Closed Principle: A class must be closed to change, but open to add new functionality. That is, instead of changing the class when existing code needs to be changed, it should be extensible to add new functionality.
  3. Liskov Substitution Principle: Any subclass must be able to replace its superclass. This means that subclasses must maintain the behavior of the superclass. Applying this principle helps code become more flexible and increase its reusability.
  4. Interface Segregation Principle: An interface should not have features that we will not use. Unused features can cause the code to become unnecessarily large and complex. Therefore, interfaces should be designed to encompass the functionality needed.
  5. Dependency Inversion Principle: High-level classes should not depend on low-level classes. Instead, both classes should depend on abstractions. High-level classes should be independent of how low-level classes are implemented. This makes the code less dependent, more flexible and reusable.

Applying SOLID principles helps software projects become more sustainable, flexible and extensible. Following these principles improves code quality and allows you to create software projects that require less maintenance, have fewer bugs, develop faster and cost less.

In this article, we discussed the YAGNI, DRY, SOC, KISS, LOD and SOLID principles that software developers will hear frequently. These principles are designed to increase code readability, reusability, maintainability, and extensibility. Following these principles can make software projects more sustainable, flexible and extensible.

SOLID principles increase the flexibility and reusability of code, while the DRY principle makes software projects easier to maintain by avoiding duplication of code. The KISS principle increases the readability of the code, while the SOC principle makes the code modular and independent, making software projects more maintainable. The LOD principle makes the code less dependent, while the YAGNI principle helps to make the code cleaner and more readable by avoiding unnecessary code being written.

Applying these principles can help us be more efficient, faster and more cost-effective in the software development process. If we want to create a high quality and flexible software product, it is important that we consider the principles of YAGNI, DRY, SOC, KISS, LOD and SOLID.

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