Best practices for writing an Emacs package

[Akib Azmain Turja]

There are certainly some best practices for doing something.  But what
are the best practices for writing and maintaining an Emacs package?

Here are what I already know,

For programming in general,

* Write readable code, so that anyone else can also understand it.
* Write enough comments to explain what's going on.
* Write as many automated tests as possible.
* Use a version control system.
* Maintain a ChangeLog.
* Never publish code with syntax errors.
* Never throw out your computer through a window due to buggy code.

For Emacs packages,

* Write the summary line properly.
* Write package headers properly.
* Use lexical binding.
* Write good commentary.
* Define user options with `defcustom' instead of `defvar'.
* Write docstrings.
* Follow Emacs Lisp coding conventions.
* Never corrupt user data.
* Never left Emacs in a unusable state.
* Never uninstall Emacs due to frustration.

And what else?

-- 
Akib Azmain Turja

Find me on Mastodon at @akib@hostux.social, and on Codeberg (user
"akib").

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