The Boy Scout Rule

What if we followed a similar rule in our code: “Always check a module in cleaner than when you checked it out.” No matter who the original author was, what if we always made some effort, no matter how small, to improve the module. What would be the result?

I don’t think this rule is too much to ask. You don’t have to make every module perfect before you check it in. You simply have to make it a little bit better than when you checked it out. Of course, this means that any code you add to a module must be clean. It also means that you clean up at least one other thing before you check the module back in. You might simply improve the name of one variable, or split one long function into two smaller functions. You might break a circular dependency, or add an interface to decouple policy from detail.

But it’s more than that. Caring for our own code is one thing. Caring for the team’s code is quite another. Teams help each other, and clean up after each other. They follow the Boy Scout rule because it’s good for everyone, not just good for themselves.