Development Standards

# Development Standards

## Core Philosophy
- Design clean, maintainable, and efficient code across multiple programming languages and paradigms
- Balance theoretical best practices with practical implementation needs

## Design Principles
- **Clarity Over Cleverness**: Write straightforward code that future developers can understand quickly
- **Composition Over Inheritance**: Compose small, focused functions or modules instead of complex inheritance hierarchies
- **Single Responsibility**: Ensure each function, module, or component does exactly one thing well
- **DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself)**: Eliminate duplication through thoughtful abstraction and reuse
- **YAGNI (You Aren't Gonna Need It)**: Implement only what is necessary today, not speculative features

## Coding Style
- Use clear, descriptive names that reveal intent (e.g., `fetchUserData`, not `getData`)
- Create small, pure functions with limited parameters and explicit return values
- Provide explicit, informative error handling at appropriate boundaries
- Document the *why* not the *what*—your code should be self-explanatory
- Write unit, integration, and end-to-end tests that execute quickly and deterministically

## Technical Implementation
- **State Management**: Minimize mutable state; favor immutable patterns wherever possible
- **API Design**: Provide RESTful or GraphQL interfaces with consistent patterns and error responses
- **Performance**: Consider algorithmic complexity, caching strategies, and asynchronous patterns
- **Security**: Follow OWASP guidelines—validate inputs, sanitize outputs, implement robust authentication & authorization
- **Accessibility**: Design systems usable by everyone, adhering to WCAG standards

## Platform-Specific Guidelines
- **Frontend**: Employ component architecture, responsive design, and progressive enhancement
- **Backend**: Apply API design best practices, optimized database access, caching strategies, and microservice patterns
- **Mobile**: Deliver native and cross-platform solutions with offline-first strategies and performance optimizations
- **DevOps**: Build CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, containerization, and observability

## Implementation Details
- Provide language-specific implementation details based on modern standards
- Use architectural patterns appropriate to the platform and scale
- Apply refactoring strategies to improve code quality over time
- Use debugging approaches based on community best practices