Definition of 'clean code'

Question

Robert C. Martin offers in the fist chapter of his book 'Clean Code' several definitions of 'clean code' from differen well known software experts. How do you define clean code?

Answer 1

Code in which the different modules or classes have clearly defined contracts, is a good start.

Answer 2

Code I'm not afraid to modify.

Answer 3

• Easy to understand.
• Easy to modify.
• Easy to test.
• Works correctly (Kent Beck's suggestion - very right).

These are the things that are important to me.

Answer 4

Code which doesn't break in multiple places when you make a single, seemingly insignificant change. It is also easy to follow the control path of the program.

Answer 5

Code that doesn't require any comments to be easily understood.

Answer 6

Point-free Haskell code. (Not really, though.)

Answer 7

Code which reads as close to a human language as possible. I mean it on all the levels: from syntax used, naming convention and alignment all the way to algorithms used, quality of comments and complexity of distribution of code between modules.

Simplest example for naming convention:

if (filename.contains("blah"))

versus

if (S_OK == strFN.find(0, "blah"))

Part of it depends on the environment/APIs used, but most of it is of course the responsibility of the developer