There are a lot of unwritten rules a developer needs to follow apart from just writing the code. Even their mood can be identified by the piece of code they write in their application. Remember that programming isn’t just about solving the problem and making your feature works. You also have to take care of a lot of things. How you’re naming your variable, how you’re using loops, conditional statement, comments, etc. How you’re documenting, debugging, and testing your application. These are some responsibilities known by only the developer and their team. Customers or the end users are completely unaware of it but these important factors matter a lot.

Here are some important aspects that developers should follow:

1. Reduce nesting structure

Sometimes developers write nesting statements in their code. By this I mean for example writing if statement within another or if-else statement within another if-else. If another developer should start working at the same project, it becomes very confusing to understand this code. He/she might get confused just because of the complexity of the code and often it would take more time to continue with it. The application becomes complex and messy with the nesting structure of your code.

2. Relevant names

Another very important part is to pay attention carefully to the variable, class, or method names you choose. This would increase the readability of your code.

3. Consistency

A good developer should follow a consistent coding standard. Whatever structure or approach you follow, make sure that you are consistent with it throughout your whole application. If you follow one way to do something in one place then follow a similar way at other places. This will make your code more readable and maintainable. The structure of your application should be as simple as possible so that other developers can easily work on it, add features to it, and make changes to it.

4. Code comments

Leaving comments for your code isn't a waste of time. They help understanding the role of a specific part. When you’re commenting on your code it explains why you did something. When other developers start working on it they immediately understand the features, modules, or components. It becomes easy for them to understand your code, work on it, and change it.

5. Delete unnecessary code

In development, most of the time developers write some code and later they comment out that massive block of comment just because they are less confident about it. They leave them there thinking that in the future they may have to use that piece of code. Great developers know very well that which specific part of the code is not important in the codebase. Version control is there for a purpose and great developers are confident about deleting the bad parts of the application.

6. Give yourself some time to review the code

Being a developer you should always consider that a task takes a long time to complete than you expect. Do not underestimate the importance of code reviews. You must detect if there is a bug early before it creates some major issues. If the task is small with less risk involved then you can do the rewiew by yourself, but if the project is more risky and large, you better discuss it with some of your colleagues. A senior developer's opinion would be always in need. You will be able to improve your skills and learn some good practices.

7. Use Google help

Searching for a problem on Google is not a sign of a bad developer. It is smartness and it also boosts the productivity of a developer. Good developers are experts in Googling things and solving problems. Make Google your best friend, focus on fundamentals and it helps a lot in googling the things and getting the required solution.

8. KISS - my favourite rule (Keep it Stupid Simple)

A lot of developers write the complicated code just to show off how intelligent they’re. Things are actually the opposite. Great developers believe in making things simple rather than complicated. They write simple code so that other developers can understand it, modify it, and work on it. Also, keeping things simple in your code makes your application more readable and maintainable.

Keep in mind all the above key points and follow them in your development journey. You will surely make progress in your career.