Assume the code is going to be changed by first semester CS students. Dumb it down as much as possible. Don't do any clever tricks. Make the patches as small as

Assume the code is going to be changed by first semester CS students. Dumb it down as much as possible. Don't do any clever tricks. Make the patches as small as possible so they can be (i) easily reviewed and (ii) allow easier bisecting. Example: if a computation requires some intermediate value, create a new variable with a proper name and assign the intermediate value to it, instead of just inlining it in a bigger statement or assigning it to "res". The compiler knows how to deal with temporary variables like these in an optimal way.