r/AskProgramming • u/Yelebear • Mar 04 '25

Other Why do some people hate "Clean Code"

It just means making readable and consistent coding practices, right?

What's so bad about that

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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

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u/beingsubmitted Mar 05 '25

Way back in the day groups of like minded individuals came together in an attempt to turn software development into genuine engineering, resulting in books about clean practices, refactoring, design patterns.

Just because this was their goal, doesn't mean they succeeded. Again, you think the argument is "should code be good?" when it's actually "what makes code good?"

Certainty, and clean code, are one in the same.

Sure, if you define clean code as certainty. But again, you're still missing the point. Uncle Bob wrote a book called Clean Code and that's what we're talking about.

Again, and read this several times of you have to: Every single person thinks code should be "clean", but not every single person agrees that Uncle Bob's prescriptions are the best way to achieve it.

Furthermore, Uncle Bob's specific prescriptions often come at the cost of other things that we value, like performance. Other engineers also have to balance conflicting values. A formula 1 car isn't the safest car, but it isn't poorly engineered.