Shawn Straton has posted the second part of his look at code readability today. This time the focus is on the structure of the code - file structure, code layout, etc.

I've had the pleasure of maintaining a legacy application developed by people who were past deadline the second they had their assignment handed to them in the past and it can get really interesting rather quickly when you see how sloppy you can get when you are in such a hurry. Here are some guidelines I've given myself to ensure that the structure is correct at the end of the day.

Some of his suggestions include:

• Breaking larger files apart into smaller, easier to maintain pieces
• Correctly naming functions/variables/etc
• Tabbing/spacing in to indent code blocks
• Input validation and error checking should always be included