Regarding Style

As I’ve gotten older my coding style has evolved. I’m a fairly verbose coder which can drive some people absolutely crazy but it works for me. It makes code more readable.

Case in point. Something I get questioned about all the time is why do I write false if conditions like this.

if (nil == thing) {
// Create a new thing
}

Instead of doing…

if (!thing) {
// Create a new thing
}

Well, that’s easy. My eyes can pick it up instantly. One other thing about that syntax. It’s a hangover from over 20 years of writing C and C++ code. The compiler will bark if you try to a value to zero. In that way it served as a way to make sure you didn’t accidentally make a mistake that could take a while to find. Let the compiler help you where it can.

I really like it more for readability. Opinions vary.