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Programming Style
We expect you to follow the
general style guidelines (PDF)
discussed and
developed in CS 115 and the CS 116 specific style guide (PDF).
- Helper functions only require a purpose and a contract
unless other components are required in the question.
- Make sure your variable and function names are
reasonable and informative.
- Use proper indentation to emphasize the logic of
operations and nested constructs.
- Take the time to specify the purpose and contracts for
functions you create. For functions with side-effects,
describe those as part of the purpose.
- Give proper examples for your functions.
- For your Python programs, we still want you to follow the
contract style you learned for Scheme. Python (like Scheme)
doesn't enforce contracts, but it's still essential that you
make sure the arguments to your functions are of the type you
say. We will be more tolerant of slight variation in contract
form, but every function must be labeled as to what type of
input it expects and what kind of output it produces.
- As your functions grow, you will need to exercise judgment
about whether your functions need or do not need examples.
Functions that do not return values, for example, largely need
helpful "purpose" headers, and examples can be descriptive of
what happens, rather than giving the value of the function for
a given input.
- Python, as we shall see, mandates indentation, so you
will be forced to indent your code usefully.
- In general, you'll need to provide enough commenting
in your code so that both you and other people can understand
what it does. Programming is a form of communication, and not
just between you and a computer.
- For your testing, you must download the check
module to be able to do testing similar to the format of
check-expect
in Scheme. To use this module, save check.py in the same directory
as your assignment questions and write import check at the top of your
file. For further information, refer to the Python Style Guide above.
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