norvig-lisp-style.pdf

Understandable

Reusable

Extensible

Ecient

Easy to developdebug

Be explicit

Be specic

Be concise

Be consistent

Be helpful anticipate the readers needs

Be conventional dont be obscure

Build abstractions at a usable level

Allow tools to interact referential transparency

Religion Good vs Evil This way is better

Philosophy This is consistent with other things

Robustness Liability Safety Ethics Ill put in

Legality Our lawyers say do it this way

Personality Opinion I like it this way

Compatibility Another tool expects this way

Portability Other compilers prefer this way

Cooperation Convention It has to be done

Habit Tradition Weve always done it this way

Ability My programmers arent sophisticated enough

Memory Knowing how I would do it means I

Superstition Im scared to do it dierently

Practicality This makes other things easier

Human readers

Compilers

Text editors arglist doc string indent

Tools trace step apropos xref manual

Users of the program indirect communication