In computer programming, readability refers to the ease with which a human reader can comprehend the purpose, control flow, and operation of source code. It affects the aspects of quality above, including portability, usability and most importantly maintainability.
Readability is important because programmers spend the majority of
their time reading, trying to understand and modifying existing source
code, rather than writing new source code. Unreadable code often leads
to bugs, inefficiencies, and duplicated code. A study[11] found that a few simple readability transformations made code shorter and drastically reduced the time to understand it.
Following a consistent programming style
often helps readability. However, readability is more than just
programming style. Many factors, having little or nothing to do with the
ability of the computer to efficiently compile and execute the code,
contribute to readability.[12] Some of these factors include:
- Different indentation styles (whitespace)
- Comments
- Decomposition
- Naming conventions for objects (such as variables, classes, procedures, etc.)
