https://rjrowland.com/tags/code-structure/Recent content in Code-Structure on rjrowlandHugoen-usTue, 21 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0500https://rjrowland.com/posts/engineering-practices-push-complexity-to-edges/Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0500https://rjrowland.com/posts/engineering-practices-push-complexity-to-edges/<h2 id="push-ifs-up-and-fors-down">Push ifs up and fors down</h2> <p>Alex Kladov named this precisely in <a href="https://matklad.github.io/2023/11/15/push-ifs-up-and-fors-down.html" target="_blank">&ldquo;Push Ifs Up and Fors Down&rdquo;</a>: two structural habits most engineers apply by instinct sometimes, without ever generalizing them.</p> <p>Push ifs up: conditional logic belongs as high in the call stack as it can go. Instead of a function checking a condition internally and doing nothing when it doesn&rsquo;t apply, let the caller decide whether to call it. The function becomes unconditional, simpler, more composable. Its signature stops lying: it does X, full stop, instead of &ldquo;maybe does X depending on internal state.&rdquo;</p>