High Level Rules

Rule of Modularity: Simple parts with clean interfaces.
Rule of Clarity: Being clear > clever.
Rule of Composition: Design programs to be connected. (Think cat data*.json | jq)
Rule of Separation: Keep policy and mechanisms separate. Keep interfaces from engines.
Rule of Simplicity: Design for simple. Add complexity when needed.
Rule of Parsimony: Write big programs when it’s clear and demonstrated nothing else will do.
Rule of Transparency: Design for visibility to ease inspection and debugging.
Rule of Robustness: Child of transparency and simplicity.
Rule of Representation: Fold knowledge into data, so program logic can be stupid and robust.
Rule of Least Surprise: In interfaces, always do the least surprising thing.
Rule of silence: When a program has nothing to say, then it should say nothing.
Rule of Repair: When you must fail, fail noisily and as soon as possible.
Rule of Economy: Conserve programmer time over machine time.
Rule of Generation: Avoid hand-hacking. Write programs to write programs when you can.
Rule of Optimization: Prototype before polishing. Get working before optimizing.
Rule of Diversity: Distrust all claims for “one true way”.
Rule of Extensibility: Design for the future, because it will be here sooner than you think.

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