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When You Actually Have to Write New Code

Jan 22, 2009

Writing good code makes life easier, says Bioinformatics Zen's Michael Barton. In this post, he lays out several tips for doing so. First, be descriptive, especially when choosing variable and method names. Being too concise could pose problems when you or someone else is trying to read or update your code in the future. Second, be dry. "DRY means don't repeat yourself," he writes. Finally, check out reputable books and open source libraries, which often will have solid example code to learn from.

Breaking News
The Scan

For Better Odds

Bloomberg reports that a child has been born following polygenic risk score screening as an embryo.

Booster Decision Expected

The New York Times reports the US Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech SARS-CoV-2 vaccine this week for individuals over 65 or at high risk.

Snipping HIV Out

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Temple University researchers are to test a gene-editing approach for treating HIV.

PLOS Papers on Cancer Risk Scores, Typhoid Fever in Colombia, Streptococcus Protection

In PLOS this week: application of cancer polygenic risk scores across ancestries, genetic diversity of typhoid fever-causing Salmonella, and more.