Sometimes the development teams employ unconventional practices to fix bugs or add new features without realizing the importance of design principles. This choice makes it difficult to maintain the code and creates new challenges like:
- Fixing one feature to break the functionality of another one.
- Adding new code that does not support existing or future enhancements.
- Introducing complexities while understanding or maintaining the code.
- Making feature testing difficult in isolation.
- Making it difficult to include new features.
Bad Coding Practices
The easiest method to avoid mistakes and save costs is by understanding and identifying bad programming habits while adapting the better ones. Here are five bad practices that you should avoid while developing software:
- Leaving typos in the code: Typos are common in coding, even when it has nothing to do with the software developer’s programming abilities. A misspelled variable or function could induce vulnerabilities in the software, making it difficult to review. Developers can easily eliminate typos using an integrated development environment for a programming-focused text editor. Additionally, the developer can choose functions and variables that are easy to spell and spot.
- Failing to modularise the cryptogram: Most developers have a habit of writing long lines of code that become Complex and Tangle the control structure, making them unreadable during the review. Therefore, developers should write short code responsible for performing a single function. This approach allows the developer to keep the code easy to comprehend and maintain.
- Using hard-coded passwords: Secure software development is all about teamwork; every team member has different responsibilities to ensure data integrity and availability. However, some developers may find attempting to use hard code passwords so that no one could access the system without their express approval. Everyone working on the same project should have convenient access to the source code. If someone decides to leave the password in the source code, it could pose a big security risk, as data should not be embedded directly into the source code.
- Writing code without the proper formatting for indenting: Following a proper format makes it easy to understand the code from a glance and identify errors. proper indenting makes it easier for other team members to maintain the source code as a consistent presentation. some developers might prefer using an IDE that does not format the code automatically as it has less bloatware.
- Relying on the IDE for security: Developers prefer using an ID because they improve their productivity, but they also suggest variables and other elements without requiring the necessary effort. Even when the IDE can write the code itself, it does not mean that the code follows the necessary security protocols. Therefore, developers should only use the IDE to eliminate errors and improve productivity.
Conclusion
No matter how good a development team is, it can make mistakes. We wrote this article to discuss some common mistakes that you should avoid when developing your software, such as leaving typos or using hard-coded passwords. When it comes to software, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. That’s why we have written dozens of articles on secure software development and related processes like safe functions or design reviews. Check them out to develop the safest and most efficient software for your needs.
