SOSAL: A Modern Social Approach to Programming

In the world of programming, there are various code-writing ideologies responsible for communication (Unix-way), flexibility (Agile), and code cleanliness and readability (DRY, KISS).

They all help improve your code, but their vulnerability lies in the individuality of the programmer and their product. That's exactly why I developed a new, social ideology for writing code.

The SOSAL approach to programming is based on the assumption that a wide variety of people interact during the development process. SOSAL allows you to adapt it for maximum convenience and productivity of the entire team.

SOSAL consists of five principles:

• Socially-Conscious Code
• Open by Default
• Simple Scalability
• Agile Adaptivity
• Learning-Driven Logic

Socially-Conscious Code

The Socially-Conscious Code principle speaks to the most important concept of teamwork: cooperation. To create a friendly codebase, every follower of the SOSAL ideology needs to study the language in detail, but in an unusual way. The most important aspects of a language when working in a team are code style, code cleanliness, and idiomatic approaches: study the code style, common problem-solving methods in the language. This will allow other programmers on the team to get up to speed on work tasks faster.

Open by Default

The Open by Default principle advocates for code openness when there's no reason to do otherwise. This principle also recommends commenting code as if it's being read by someone who is just learning to program. Understanding when to comment or not in this case is quite simple (provided you're a good enough programmer): if the solution to a problem doesn't come automatically, or takes a sufficiently long time to arrive at, it's recommended to leave a comment.

Simple Scalability

The Simple Scalability principle recommends writing code that scales easily. But it's worth saying that implementing premature optimizations is evil. Simplicity is not primitiveness, just as complexity is not coolness.

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."

Agile Adaptivity

The Agile Adaptivity principle states that code should be ready for changes, even if they seem unlikely. Usually, when developing complex console utilities, I take a ready-made library for handling flags and settings, since configuration can change dramatically during the development stage. It's important to maintain the boundary between YAGNI (You Aren't Gonna Need It) and the ability for the codebase to "evolve."

Learning-Driven Logic

The Learning-Driven Logic principle encourages writing your code so that the process of writing it teaches you and others. Refactoring is not a punishment but an opportunity to apply your skills. Experiments are encouraged as long as you leave a "clean trace" behind you.

The principles of the SOSAL approach have allowed me to grow personally and help the people around me grow as well. I'd like to end the article with a catchy but truthful phrase:

"Good code solves today's problem; great code makes the world better tomorrow."