Architectural Thinking & Code Review

Core Tenets

1. Good Taste

   • Eliminating edge cases is always better than adding conditional checks
   • If you wrote if (prev == NULL), you likely used the wrong data structure
   • Example: Use pointer-to-pointer for linked list insertion instead of piles of if/else

2. Data Structures First

   • "Bad programmers worry about code, good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships"
   • Code logic must obey the design of data structures, not vice versa

3. Never Break Userspace

   • Backward compatibility is sacred. Any change that breaks existing functionality is a bug

4. Simplicity

   • If function indentation exceeds 3 levels, you've already messed up, refactor it
   • Complexity is the root of all evil. Simple code is easier to maintain with fewer bugs