Just reading the first couple replies to this thread, there seems to be some confusion regarding what code quality IS. Two broad categories: 1. Micro code qual

Just reading the first couple replies to this thread, there seems to be some confusion regarding what code quality IS. Two broad categories: 1. Micro code quality. Looking at a single file, someone makes statements about code style - spacing, variable naming, etc. - things you would find in a style guide like PEP8. 2. Code Design. Testable code, the absence of edge cases where unnecessary (for example, turning the root of a tree into an edge case) and broader design questions; and things like correct choice of algorithm. Code quality kind of encompasses both, but its obvious how you can be bad in one category and still be really good in the other. Really good code is good in both, but if I had to pick, I'd like to be good in category 2 first at the expense of 1. Assuming 2., 1. can be improved easily. I'd like to say something about concise code as well. Concise code, or code that does a lot in very little lines can be treacherous. This can be fun when your team is all very senior C programmers who actually understand all this code. Then, brevity is good, but when you work in open source, or write software that has to be read by people who are inferior to you, being concise may not be the way to go. This is almost similar to premature optimization, but not really. People who write really good C code optimize - but not prematurely. They just know that what they're doing is efficient.