Writing code

For computational research, code is an important scientific artefact for the author, for colleagues and collaborators, and for the scientific community. It is the ultimate form of expressing what you did and how you did it. With good version control and documentation practices, it can also capture when and why you made important decisions.

Tip

[W]e want to establish the idea that a computer language is not just a way of getting a computer to perform operations but rather that it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology. Thus, programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.

— Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. Abelson, Sussman, and Sussman, 1984.