Coding standards are the practice of writing out one’s code in a certain order. They must follow specific guidelines in order to run, with such things like improper spacing resulting in a message asking to fix it. To many, including myself, coding standards can be somewhat frustrating as the littlest things result in an error. This mostly goes back to the mindset of “if you know what I’m trying to say, then why is there a misunderstanding?”. But overall I think that it is a good practice to learn the “proper” form to code in order to better ourselves in the future.
While I don’t have much experience with ESLint, in the beginning I was somewhat frustrated with it. I admit I am not a perfect coder, I sometimes put too many or too little spaces in my coding, which is inconsistent of me but I personally don’t feel like there is much of a problem as long as one can read it and it runs as intended. However with ESLint it forces there to be consistent spacing between each statement such as the else in if statements or the do-while loops. I think that this is something that I just need to get used to and I fully beleive that it is for the better.
Similar to learning a verbal language it is important to learn the basics. When we learned English we were mostly taught proper spelling and grammar, and our homework assignments would always have to be the same format. While we grow older and get more lax due to having more casual conversations with those who know what we mean when we speak, that option is resereved for those who are close to us. In the coding field, anyone can look at our code at a different point in time so it’s important that we try and make it as simple as we can for them to understand and read. When we email or text someone we have never met before it is common courtesy to use proper spelling and grammar in order to avoid any misunderstandings, and in coding it is the exact same way. If we want to grow as software engineers of the future, we need to nail the little things down now before taking on the bigger tasks of the future.